Keep Hold of My Heart
by ahomeformyheart
Summary: This is a collection of missing scenes and AU moments for Lizzie and MG, a.k.a. Mizzie, from Legacies!
1. Can you still recall the day we met?

Hello!

I've started watching _Legacies_ and I've fallen in love with Lizzie and MG, both as individual characters and as a romantic pairing, so I've started writing these missing scenes and AU moments for them. And who knows, maybe I'll be inspired to write a full-length story for them at some point as well if I can think of a prompt that's good enough!

The title for this collection comes from the song, "Home," by Rhodes, which I think is a sweet and fitting song for Mizzie!

This first part is a gift for a friend who wants the show to tell us when MG first developed feelings for Lizzie. This is my proposed answer to that question. I hope you like it!

* * *

He'd been instructed to report to the headmaster's office.

The letter had appeared out of thin air, floating into his outstretched hands just moments after his parents had deemed him sufficiently settled in and left.

Not wanting to cause trouble on his first day at his new school, he left his room, hoping he would be able to easily find it again in the maze of hallways, and followed the directions in the letter.

He could tell he was getting close when he heard a disgruntled female voice complain, "There's a new student already? The school year just started!"

"People don't only transition at convenient times," an exasperated-sounding male voice sighed in response.

He knocked on the door marked with a sign reading 'Headmaster' and the man called out, "Come in!"

He opened the door to see three people staring at him: a middle-aged man dressed casually for the weekend in a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, a dark-haired girl with warm brown eyes, and a stunning blonde standing with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrows raised.

"Welcome to the Salvatore School. I'm Alaric Saltzman, the headmaster here at the school. Girls, this is our new student, Milton Greasley. Milton, these are my daughters, Josie and Lizzie," the headmaster introduced.

"Hi," the brunette greeted cordially, taking a step forward. "I'm Josie."

"Milton?" the blonde, Lizzie, questioned with disdain coloring her voice.

"Lizzie," Alaric scolded.

She seemed to deflate a little after her father's stern rebuke, and he felt the need to defend her.

"She's right, sir, it is a stupid name," he said. "You can call me MG."

"You don't have to call me 'sir,' MG. Dr. Saltzman is more than formal enough for me, and I only make students call me that because my parents also gave me a 'stupid name,'" Alaric replied. "Now, if you're ready, the girls will give you a tour of the school, show you everything you need to know before you start classes tomorrow."

"We have to give the tour?" Lizzie complained. "Why can't you ever make your favorite daughter do it?"

"I'm making both of my favorite daughters do it," Alaric remarked with a sardonic smile that MG recognized: the expression clearly said, 'I can't properly lecture you in front of someone outside of the family, but be aware that I am not pleased with your behavior and we will be having words about it later.'

He'd been on the receiving end of it from his own father plenty of times before.

"I need to investigate why it seems that Sheriff Donovan has apparently replaced this week's batch of vervain in the coffee with wolfsbane, and Hope is coming with me, but Dorian is here if you need anything, and we'll both have our cell phones if anyone needs to reach us, okay?" Alaric addressed his daughters.

"I'll be sure to let all of Hope's many friends know that she'll be off-campus for the rest of the afternoon," Lizzie replied with a sickly-sweet fake smile.

"Hey, can we please not do this right now?" Josie requested earnestly.

Unlike her flippant response to her father, Lizzie seemed to take her sister's words seriously.

"Fine. Come on, MG, let's get this over with," Lizzie ordered, meeting MG's eyes for the first time.

Lizzie's eyes were a pale shade of blue that bordered on grey, the sort of color that reminded him of a cloudy day: their deceptive serenity hiding the storm that might be unleashed at any moment.

Lizzie was beautiful, MG had noticed that the second he had laid eyes on her, but now even more than just admiring how pretty she was with her flawless skin and her blonde hair that fell in loose spirals to her ribcage, those bewitching eyes—now frozen like ice as she held back whatever she was feeling—drew him in.

He'd never wanted to get to know someone so badly in his life, never been so interested in deciphering the subtext of someone's sighs and smiles, never been so endlessly fascinated by anyone as he was by this iceberg of a girl who looked like sunshine on the surface but must be an abyss of intricacies and complexities down below.

His first thought was that he might drown in the process.

His second was that it would be worth it.

MG forced himself to retreat from his surprisingly poetic thoughts. He'd only known this girl for five minutes, and developing a crush on the headmaster's daughter was not a smart way to acclimate to a new school and his new life as a vampire.

Just then, the door to the office burst open without a knock or any warning to the non-vampires in the room.

The girl that entered had coppery auburn hair a few inches shorter than Lizzie's, though it was less curly, and ocean blue eyes. She was wearing a navy blue V-neck tee-shirt, dark olive green skinny jeans, and black combat boots with block heels. Even with the height her shoes added, she was still noticeably shorter than both Josie and Lizzie.

"Hey, Dr. Saltzman, are you ready to go?" the girl asked urgently.

"Yeah," the headmaster answered, picking up a gym bag and a set of keys. "Bye girls, be good!"

The two left the office as quickly as the girl had entered.

"That was Hope," Josie offered.

"Isn't she charming?" Lizzie asked sarcastically.

"Is she a student here?" MG asked, surprised by how much responsibility students at the school seemed to be given.

"She's a senior. Though when she graduates Dad will probably offer her a job here so that she can stay," Lizzie responded bitterly.

"Do only seniors get to go on field trips like this with the headmaster?" MG asked.

"No, only Hope does," Lizzie replied in a biting tone.

"What makes her so special?" MG asked, feeling indignant not only on behalf of Lizzie, who was clearly irritated by the practice, but himself and the rest of the student body as well.

He wasn't expecting Lizzie and Josie to respond by bursting into laughter, but to his confusion, that's exactly what they did.

"Hope is the living epitome of special," Lizzie answered. "As if all of the forces of the universe conspired together to make her as special as they possibly could."

"Hope's mother was the Alpha—that's what werewolves call their leader, so she was like their queen, essentially—of this really important, magical wolf pack in New Orleans where they're from," Josie explained. "And her father was the Original Hybrid—he and his siblings were turned into the first vampires over a thousand years ago, and he had a werewolf gene, too, making him the first vampire-werewolf hybrid. And his mother, Hope's grandmother, was a really powerful witch who turned all of her living children into vampires. So Hope inherited the werewolf gene from both of her parents, her magical abilities from her grandmother through her father, and also somehow her father's vampire blood."

"So what does that make Hope?" MG asked.

"The one and only tribrid," Lizzie replied heavily. "Part witch, part werewolf, and supposedly part vampire, though no one's ever seen any evidence of the last one. The only one of her kind, as she'll constantly remind you, and so completely unique that none of the rest of us could possibly even dream of understanding how special she is. In fact, I'm sure she'll be insulted that word of her tribrid specialness hadn't reached your newbie-vampire ears. But don't worry, she probably won't talk to you, unless she needs something from you or decides to pick a fight with you. At least, that's how she treats us."

"Why?"

"Because she's angry, and belligerent, and arrogant," Josie answered. "Both of her parents died within a short period of time, and she wasn't exactly a social butterfly before, but ever since then she's been completely emotionally withdrawn from everyone. The way she sees it, everyone she cares about dies, so it's better for her not to care about anyone in the first place."

"So, there you go, that's everything you need to know about Hope Mikaelson," Lizzie chimed in. "Who gets to go with our dad on all werewolf-related missions, and most other missions, because of her specialness. Her blood is the cure to a werewolf bite and can create hybrids, and as she likes to remind us, she's the most powerful witch to ever live, or something like that, so there are practical reasons why he brings her along. It certainly isn't for her sparkling personality."

"Lizzie, we were supposed to give MG a tour, not complain about Hope all day," Josie spoke up.

"Right," Lizzie nodded. "This is the headmaster's office. After today, you do not want to be called in here, because it means you're in trouble."

Lizzie led the way out of the office and back into the hallway.

She pointed to the door to the right of Dr. Saltzman's office.

"That is the headmistress's office," Lizzie continued. "Mom is away on a recruiting mission right now, so you'll meet her when she gets back. That's her," Lizzie pointed to a picture on the wall. In it, Lizzie and Josie sat in between Alaric and a young woman with similar coloring to Lizzie, though her hair was lighter and her eyes were brighter.

"If you're thinking that she looks really young, it's because she's a vampire," Josie offered. "She isn't our biological mother, but after our biological mother was killed while she was pregnant with us, her coven literally moved us to what they saw as the most viable option for our survival, which was our mom. She carried us, gave birth to us, and raised us. Which is kind of awesome, if you think about it, since it means that she decided to be our mom. She could have handed us over to our dad and walked away, but she chose to stay."

MG didn't know what to say. Lizzie and Josie's obvious love and admiration for their mother was a stark contrast from the way they'd criticized Hope only moments ago.

"I wouldn't have known that you two were twins," MG managed.

"Fraternal, obviously," Lizzie said. "Josie looks like our biological mother, who she was named after, and I look like our dad and our aunt who died the same day as our biological mother."

Lizzie then abruptly ended the conversation as she moved to the next office.

"This is our school counselor, Emma Tig's office," Lizzie announced. "Sessions with her are mandatory, regardless of your assessment of your mental state. She'll call you into her office sometime this week to put together your psychological assessment and add you to her schedule."

"Psychological assessment?" MG questioned.

"Yeah, we all have one," Josie confirmed. "But don't worry, the only people who can see them are Emma, Dad, and Mom. I've never seen mine, or Lizzie's."

"Please, your psychological assessment says that you're a Disney princess whose only flaw is being too nice," Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"Does that make you the evil twin?" MG joked.

"Absolutely," Lizzie replied seriously.

The twins introduced MG to Dorian in the next office, and passed the nurse's office without incident.

Lizzie and Josie pointed out the gym and locker rooms as they continued down the hallway. They showed him another corridor full of classrooms, where Lizzie demanded to see his class schedule and pointed out all of his classes, then shared a story about the course or the teacher.

When they reached a Civics class taught by her father, Lizzie deadpanned, "That guy's such a jerk."

MG found himself laughing, as he had with all of her jokes. The more Lizzie spoke, the more enchanted with her MG became. She was vibrant and dynamic and unpredictable—he could watch her for days and never get bored. She kept the conversation going, even when her soft-spoken sister stayed quiet for long stretches of time, and she was generously forthcoming with advice and gossip that only the headmaster's daughter would know.

They made a stop at the cafeteria, then Lizzie announced that they'd reached their final stop on the tour before they would return to Dr. Saltzman's office.

"Welcome to the Stefan Salvatore Memorial Library," she said quietly.

"The guy the school is named after?" MG inquired.

"Yes," Josie confirmed softly. "This school used to be his house; well, his and his brother's. After he died, our parents founded the school here."

"How long ago was that?" he wondered.

"Stefan died when we were three," Lizzie answered. "And the school opened about a year later."

They walked over to a glass case in the middle of the room. It was filled with journals, pictures, and other personal mementos that belonged to Stefan.

"This was taken the day he died," Lizzie pointed to a picture of a man facing a familiar-looking blonde woman, clearly taken during their wedding ceremony.

MG barely had time to process the fact that Stefan had died on his wedding day before he recognized the woman in the photo.

"He was your stepfather?" MG blurted out.

"For about twenty minutes," Lizzie replied.

"That's an exaggeration," Josie cut in.

"A slight exaggeration," Lizzie retorted. "It was actually more like four hours, but still. Their marriage was brief."

"I'm sorry," MG offered.

"It's fine," Lizzie replied. "It was years ago, and we were so little; we barely knew him."

The twins steered him around the large room, showing him different books and artifacts, advising him not to touch anything except maybe some of the books.

Once Lizzie and Josie were satisfied that they had shown MG everything in the library, they made their way back to the headmaster's office. Alaric and Hope had returned from their mission and were filling Dorian and Emma in on what had happened.

"Sorry to interrupt," Lizzie interrupted, glaring at Hope, who was wearing a different outfit than she had earlier, her auburn hair now tied up in a messy ponytail.

"Girls, it's good that you're here," Alaric greeted. Lizzie adorably beamed at the thought of her father being happy to see her. "There was a werewolf hunter in the area, hence the wolfsbane, but Hope and I took care of him, so there's no need for anyone else to know, understood?"

Josie nodded obediently as Lizzie's face fell.

"Yeah, no problem," she mumbled.

"How did you manage to subdue him?" Dorian asked.

"Well, Hope had the brilliant idea to transform into her wolf form to make the hunter think that he was seeing things, and I was able to take advantage of his disorientation to hit him with my crossbow. But I couldn't have done anything without Hope," Alaric praised.

Lizzie seethed, while a smile appeared on Hope's face, the expression faltering a little as she made eye contact with MG for the first time.

"You're the new student, Milton, right?" she asked. "I'm Hope Mikaelson."

"Nice to meet you," he responded politely. "Call me MG."

"Okay, MG," Hope replied. "Well, I know that sometimes being the new kid makes it hard to make new friends, so if you don't have anyone else to sit with and you'd rather not be alone, you can eat lunch with me if you want, I guess? I'm kind of a loner, too. I'm a tribrid, and I'm the only one of my kind, which makes it kind of hard for me to get along with people when I'm an entirely different species."

"Josie and I already invited MG to eat with us, Hope, but I'm sure he appreciates your oh-so-genuine offer that my dad totally didn't order you to make," Lizzie shot back.

Lizzie and Josie had done no such thing, but MG wasn't about to contradict her and side with Hope.

"Well, just don't believe anything she says about me," Hope told MG. "She isn't exactly a picnic either, and she hasn't been through half of what I have."

"If you kids are done socializing," Alaric spoke up. "You girls can go, I need to have a word with MG, just to tell him the rules and answer any questions he has."

Dorian and Emma must have slipped out while Lizzie and Hope had been arguing, since MG and Alaric were alone in the office after Lizzie, Josie, and Hope left.

"The girls showed you around?" Dr. Saltzman asked.

MG nodded.

"I hope they didn't give you any trouble," Alaric continued. "They mean well, and Josie can usually handle Lizzie when she gets… emotional."

MG wasn't sure what the headmaster was referring to, but he felt uncomfortable with him criticizing his daughter in front of a virtual stranger.

"They were both very nice and helpful," MG told Alaric.

"Great," Alaric seemed pleasantly surprised. "Do you have any questions for me?"

MG shook his head.

"You seem like a good kid, MG," Dr. Saltzman said. "We just have a few rules here, and as long as you follow them, we won't have a problem. The rules are simple: don't hurt your fellow students, and keep what we do here a secret. Naturally, those two rules combine to form the most important one: don't use your supernatural abilities outside of the school, for any reason, and especially not to hurt anyone."

"Sounds simple enough," MG agreed easily.

"Then I think you're all set. If you think of a question later, you can stop by my office, or you can call, text, email, have one of the girls send a note… whatever you want to do," Alaric concluded.

Once he left the headmaster's office, MG decided to go outside and explore the expansive grounds, which included a swimming pool and an old, abandoned mill on opposite ends of the property.

"Hey, MG!" someone called out from behind him.

MG turned around to see Josie running up to him, her dark hair bouncing on her shoulders.

"Hi, Josie," MG greeted.

"I realized after we left Dad's office that my sister and I never actually invited you to lunch with us, but we totally meant to, I promise," Josie rambled. "And Lizzie has this rivalry with Hope and she thinks that no one can be friends with both of them, so she acted like we had so that she wouldn't lose you to the dark side, as she would think of it. So, I'm sorry for forgetting, and we would both love if you would please eat lunch with us tomorrow."

"Sounds great," MG smiled at Josie, thinking that her twin's claim that Josie's only flaw was that she was too nice was accurate.

"Okay, see you later!" and with that, Josie ran back inside.

Well, lunch tomorrow would be interesting. MG really liked both of the twins, and was eager to develop friendships with both of them.

Josie was clearly the sugar to her sister's spice, but there was something about Lizzie that MG found so captivating. She was beautiful, and bright, and funny, and smart, and MG could tell that he hadn't even begun to learn all there was to know about Lizzie Saltzman.

But he knew that he wanted to learn more.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading this, I really hope you liked it! I'm feeling really inspired by this ship lately, so I want to try to upload the second part before tonight's episode (which I'm really excited for!) if I can!


	2. My Shelter from the Storm

I know I said I wanted to upload this before tonight's episode aired, but it was longer than I'd expected, so it's a little later than I wanted to post. I couldn't watch this week's episode live, so I still haven't seen it, which makes this update spoiler-free and safe to read if you haven't seen it either! This is an AU version of what might have happened at the end of last week's episode if it had been MG who found Lizzie in the gym instead of Rafael.

Enjoy!

* * *

Lizzie sat crying amongst the remains of the punching bag she'd just destroyed.

It was a metaphor, she thought miserably. She had literally destroyed her punching bag, and Penelope had accused her of metaphorically destroying the person she'd always used as her punching bag: Josie.

Lizzie refused to believe that Penelope might have had a point. Josie was the person that Lizzie loved more than anyone else on the planet; her best friend, her other half. There was no Lizzie without Josie. She would never hurt her.

So, perhaps it might have been true that Lizzie hadn't entertained the possibility that Josie had wanted to run for the honor council, but Josie had never said anything, and Lizzie couldn't be expected to read her sister's mind.

And Josie was the shy, quiet twin. Surely Lizzie could be forgiven for assuming that Josie had no interest in something that she'd never expressed any interest in before?

Penelope had made her sound like the worst person in the world, but Lizzie didn't think that she was as bad as Penelope accused her of being. She'd never killed anyone—except that giant spider, but that thing was so gross and terrifying, it totally had it coming. She wasn't mean like Penelope, who went around hurting people on behalf of unsuspecting exes.

Lizzie was sure that Josie had no idea what Penelope had been up to. She'd figured out that she'd convinced the witches not to elect Lizzie, but Josie had sworn up and down that she had no idea why.

Now Lizzie had their answer: Penelope blamed Lizzie for causing the demise of her relationship with Josie, and probably everything else that had gone wrong throughout its entirety.

Had Penelope really expected Josie to just completely abandon Lizzie just because she had a girlfriend? Because if she had, she hadn't really known Josie at all.

And Penelope's threat to burn her world down? Did she really think that Josie would be okay with that? Hurting Lizzie would never endear anyone to Josie, just like no one could ever win over Lizzie by hurting Josie.

That was what people didn't understand about the Saltzman twins: there was no way to hurt Lizzie that didn't also hurt Josie, just like there was no way to hurt Josie without hurting Lizzie.

Their father called them co-dependent, but Lizzie found her inextricably close relationship with her twin comforting. They could feel each other's pain, have entire conversations without saying a word. Josie meant that Lizzie never had to be alone. And unlike her quiet and introspective twin, Lizzie hated being alone.

Being around people and noise helped drown out the demons in her head.

Lizzie heard footsteps approach and looked up.

She hoped it was a friend, or at least a lower school student who would obey her command to leave her alone out of respect for her seniority even if they no longer respected her after the election.

If she had to stomach Josie's sympathetic looks, or listen to more accusations from Penelope, or face Hope, who hadn't even had to run because Lizzie's father had just given her a place on the council when she'd demanded it, she might lose it and destroy more than just a punching bag.

"Hey, Lizzie—what's wrong, why are you crying?"

In a second, MG was crouched down in front of her, still dressed in the blazer he'd worn to the announcement of the election results, his campaign button still fastened to his lapel.

"Nothing, I'm fine, leave me alone," Lizzie insisted, trying to get him to go away. She couldn't face him right now, knowing that, as Josie's friend, he probably agreed with Penelope that she treated her sister horribly and was a terrible person. Penelope would probably say that she treated him almost as poorly as she did Josie.

But he didn't leave.

He sat down next to her. At first Lizzie thought he was staring at her legs again, until she realized that he had sat down further back on the mat than she had, meaning that it was her shoulder, covered in her grey sweatshirt, that was directly in his line of sight.

And he'd done that so that she didn't have to look him in the eye unless she wanted to.

She wouldn't have to see the looks of pity or judgment as she told him what was wrong, and for that, she was grateful.

"What's wrong is that I am apparently the worst person in the world," Lizzie choked out.

"Who told you that?" MG asked.

"Penelope," Lizzie spat.

"And do you believe her?"

"No!" Lizzie insisted. "But I'm sure you do."

MG was quiet for a long moment.

Then he said, "I don't think I deserve that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lizzie demanded.

"For one thing, you're insulting my intelligence," MG stated. "Of all of the terrorists and serial killers and tyrants in the world, you really think I would think that you're the worst? I'm here, Lizzie, and I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about you. I'd like to think you would know me better than to think I would care about someone as awful as you say Penelope accused you of being."

"I always thought you only tolerated me because of Josie," Lizzie confessed. "Who I apparently treat like garbage, only confirming that she is a saint and I am a demon."

"You aren't a demon," MG was trying not to laugh, Lizzie could hear it in his voice. "Is that what you need? Do you want to actually discuss what Penelope said to you, or do you need me to just sit here and tell you how wrong she is and that you're actually the nicest, prettiest, smartest person I've ever known?"

"I wouldn't believe you if you said that," Lizzie replied. "But thanks for trying."

"I think I need both," Lizzie decided after a moment. "I need you to tell me that she's wrong and that I'm not horrible, but I need to earn it, you know? Especially from you. After Josie, you're the most genuinely, selflessly good person I know."

"Thank you, I will happily accept second place," MG responded.

"Well, no one will ever take Josie's place, so second place is as good as you're going to get," Lizzie told him.

They sat in silence for a few moments while Lizzie gathered her thoughts and decided what she wanted to tell MG. He'd made it clear that he didn't agree with Penelope, but she doubted that she'd get the same sort of unconditional sympathy that she would from Josie.

But she knew from her sessions with Emma that this was healthier, that MG being the one to walk through those doors was the best scenario she could have asked for, that opening up to him about Penelope's harsh words and how they made her feel was the healthiest way that she could deal with what had happened.

If Josie had been there, she would have patted Lizzie's hair and told her how wonderful she was before stalking off to scold Penelope, which would only serve to prove her point. If her father had been there, he would make her meditate again, or something else that just made her feel like he was trying to tell her that Josie could handle being a witch but she couldn't. If Hope had been there, she would have probably picked a fight with Lizzie, which would at least have the benefit of making her made at Hope instead of Penelope. If Rafael had been there, Lizzie would have either awkwardly stuttered through a vague explanation of what happened or thrown herself at him in search of comfort, both of which she would surely be humiliated by later. If Emma had been there, she would ask all sorts of probing questions about how that made Lizzie feel and how she would change her behavior in response.

The person Lizzie really wished was there was her mother.

Caroline always gave great advice, and she had a knack for knowing when her daughters needed sympathy and support, or tough love, or some combination of both.

But since her mom wasn't there, and Lizzie had called her earlier to tell her about the honor council elections and found out that she was in an area with poor cell service, she had to take the chance that MG would be a good temporary replacement.

"She called me a black hole," Lizzie whispered. "She said that I just suck up everyone's love and time and energy without ever giving anything back."

"Ouch," MG said. "That's harsh."

"Obviously I think so too, or I wouldn't be sitting here in the dark crying over it," Lizzie retorted.

"Right, sorry," MG apologized. "Here."

Lizzie turned her head to see MG extending a small piece of fabric towards her. As she took it, she realized it was his pocket square.

"I don't have a handkerchief, but that seems like it might do the job," he said.

"Thanks," Lizzie wiped her eyes, leaving black streaks of mascara on the fabric. "Then she said that Josie doesn't have time for a relationship because she's always taking care of me, and that Josie would never burn my world down like I deserve, so Penelope is going to do it for her."

"There's a lot to unpack there," MG responded thoughtfully. "But my first thought is to say that she isn't giving Josie enough credit."

"I'm Lizzie. Josie's the other twin," Lizzie made a half-hearted attempt to joke.

MG offered a slight chuckle.

"I know, and I don't think she gave you enough credit either," MG explained. "But I know you and your sister pretty well, I think, and I find it hard to believe that anyone else who knows Josie would ever think that she would just abandon her family because she got into a relationship. I mean, look at what happened tonight. Josie voted for Landon to leave, because his appearance at the school has put her family in danger. It didn't matter if she liked Rafael and wanted to do what she knew he wanted her to, you and your dad came first for her."

"Isn't it sort of masochistic to listen in on a meeting for a council you weren't elected to?" Lizzie blurted out.

"Not any more than attacking a punching bag over it," MG returned.

"You're right, between the two of us, you are the well-adjusted and psychologically healthy one," Lizzie relented.

"Hey, look at me," MG put his hand on Lizzie's shoulder.

Lizzie, who had been looking down at her sneakers glumly, raised her head and turned to look at MG.

"You didn't hurt anyone," MG said, looking so seriously into her eyes that Lizzie almost thought that he was trying to compel her. "I know how it is for you, that sometimes your feelings are so big and intense that, even as big as your heart is, it can't contain all of it. But I also know that you're powerful enough to cause some serious damage if you wanted to, but you didn't. Small victories, okay? Who cares about the punching bag, you didn't hurt yourself or anyone else."

Lizzie had never thought about her meltdowns that way. Josie tried to calm her down and clean up her messes. Her father blamed her magic for the tantrums when Lizzie knew that it was her mind that sent her spiraling out of control. Her mother was the most helpful, trying to get her to identify feelings and situations that triggered her meltdowns and come up with ways to extricate herself from the situation before she completely lost control, encouraging her to channel her intense feelings in a less potentially dangerous way, like journaling or music.

But all of their strategies had revolved around getting Lizzie's episodes to stop entirely, both for Lizzie's safety and the safety of her fellow students. No one had ever accepted that Lizzie's meltdowns were an common symptom of her mental illness and attempted to simply mitigate the damage to only inanimate objects or praised her for doing so like MG just had.

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Lizzie murmured. "But last time I had a freakout, I nearly sent a knife flying through my dad's brain."

"But you didn't," MG emphasized. "Your dad is fine, because you were able to stop yourself from hurting him. You're stronger than you think you are."

"Thanks, MG," Lizzie said. "I'm sorry you didn't win the seat on the council. I think you would have been a great representative."

"Thank you," MG replied warmly. "But we can have a pity party for me later, I want to make sure that you're okay. What Penelope said to you was really hurtful."

"This felt different than the other times she's insulted me," Lizzie shared. "I mean, obviously being told you're selfishly destroying the person you love most in the world hurts more than being called fat."

"An attack on your character is more personal and hurtful than an attack on your appearance," MG agreed. "And I think the idea of hurting Josie scares you much more than the idea of Penelope thinking you're fat does. Especially since you aren't fat."

"So you agree with her then," Lizzie sighed. "Maybe you wouldn't have said it so harshly, but you agree that I'm selfish and take advantage of Josie."

"What?" MG seemed genuinely startled by Lizzie's accusation. "I don't think that at all!"

"You just said that I'm not scared of someone thinking I'm fat because I'm not. By that logic, I must be scared of hurting Josie because I am hurting Josie."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're too smart for your own good?" MG shook his head. "But correlation does not imply causation here. You know that you would never intentionally hurt Josie, and so does Josie."

"But that isn't what I'm worried about!" Lizzie insisted. "I'm worried that I'm hurting her without meaning to! And I could believe that Penelope was just being mean, but I don't think that you would do that to me."

"We all hurt that people that we care about without meaning to sometimes—"

"I just need you to be honest with me, okay? Do you think I'm selfish, and do you think that I'm hurting Josie and not even noticing because of how selfish I am?" Lizzie demanded.

MG was silent for so long that Lizzie would have thought that he had disappeared if not for the warm weight of his hand on her shoulder.

She'd asked for honesty, Lizzie reminded herself, and she wouldn't have believed he was being honest if he'd immediately denied the accusations.

"I think that it's possible that you've grown so used to Josie being there for you, that there are times when you assume she's on the same page as you when she isn't, and Josie doesn't speak up because she has a tendency to consider everyone else's feelings before her own," MG finally answered. "I don't think any psychologist would look at your relationship and consider it perfectly healthy, but you aren't the only one to blame for that. I think what Penelope said was majorly biased by her feelings for Josie and her skewed perception of your relationship. She would rather blame you for everything than acknowledge that Josie plays a part in it as well, and that's what she did tonight."

"That didn't answer my questions," Lizzie mumbled, knowing he could hear her but not knowing if she wanted him to.

MG sighed.

"Fine, yes, sometimes you hurt Josie's feelings without meaning to or noticing that you've done it. But Josie is an expert at hiding her own feelings in order to try to make everyone else happy, so I don't blame you for not knowing that she's upset when she doesn't say anything and pretends that she isn't upset, and neither does she. And, yes, maybe sometimes you can be selfish, but no one who knows you and cares about you blames you for that either because we know that sometimes it takes all of your effort just to keep your emotions in check. My point is, all of us have traits we don't like or that other people don't like about us, but they aren't everything. If Penelope thinks that your bouts of selfishness are all that you are, then she doesn't know you. And she's missing out."

"What can I do?" Lizzie asked, eagerly turning to face MG, curling her legs underneath her. "I don't want to hurt Josie. I want to be better. What can I do?"

"You can lean on me," MG offered. "Maybe if you could depend on another person besides just Josie, she would have more time to do her own thing, and she would feel more comfortable voicing her opinions and pursuing her own interests. So, whatever you need, just call me and I'll be there."

"Why?" Lizzie asked. "I mean, Josie's stuck with me for life, but being my friend seems like a lot of work for very little reward. Why would you offer yourself up as bait like that?"

"I told you, I care about you, and Josie," MG responded. "I want you both to be happy, and I want to help."

Even though she knew she didn't deserve to feel this way, Lizzie felt a small twinge of disappointment that he wasn't offering just for her.

"Thank you, MG," Lizzie said softly. "Seriously, I don't know what I did to deserve having you in our lives."

Before she could even really think about it, Lizzie leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

When she pulled away and looked up at him, Lizzie could see a slight blush across his cheeks.

"You have a really big heart, Lizzie," MG told her. "I know that sometimes it feels like all you're holding in there is rage, but you have so much love to give. And when you're happy, you practically radiate joy. It's like staring into the sun."

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments.

"I should go back to my room, but I'm not sure I can handle talking to Josie right now," Lizzie confessed.

"Then here's what we'll do," MG planned. "We will stay here, until midnight, at which time I will be the first person to officially wish you a happy birthday. Then you can go back to your room, where Josie will be asleep, and you won't have to talk to her."

"Okay," Lizzie agreed, leaning her head on MG's shoulder.

After a moment, she spoke up again.

"Hey, MG?"

"Yeah?"

"If we're going to hide out in here…"

"A plate of brownies for the birthday girl, coming right up."


	3. Love is the Prize

Hello!

I loved all of the Mizzie scenes in episode six, which inspired me to write this, which combines the scenes I love with some original fixes for the things I didn't love, as well as some character development for Lizzie.

The title for this part comes from Avicii's song, "Wake Me Up." (Who else loved that acoustic cover playing during that scene with Lizzie, Josie, Alaric, and Jo?! It fit the scene so well and makes me cry every time I hear it!)

Happy reading!

* * *

Lizzie felt like a princess as she stood at the top of the steps, the crowd of partygoers staring up admiringly at her.

Everything was perfect, from the spotlight reflecting off of her sparkly blue dress, to the balloons spelling out her and her sister's names, to the music the deejay was playing. Whoever had been in charge of setting up for the party had flawlessly brought Lizzie's vision for her sweet sixteen.

It was only after the deejay announced Lizzie and her escort did she notice that not everything was perfect: her date was missing.

She descended the stairs anyway, hoping that he would appear by the time she made it to the halfway point on the staircase where they were supposed to meet.

When she did get there, Rafael wasn't there, and standing where he should have been was MG, wearing a boldly-printed suit and white sneakers, holding a red rose.

He hadn't been there a second ago, so he must have used his vampire speed to rush over and come to her aid when he saw that her real date hadn't arrived yet.

"Where's my date?" Lizzie asked scathingly.

"You're looking at him," MG told her, with a soft warmth to his voice that Lizzie wasn't sure how to react to.

Lizzie couldn't even help herself when she criticized everything from his shoes to the flower he was holding, but he deflected her ire with good humor, sharing the (apparently prestigious) brand name of his sneakers and rattling off a list of her favorite things as if he'd studied them for a test.

Lizzie couldn't help but wonder how MG knew all of those things about her. Most people at the school knew her only by a few, limited identifiers: the headmaster's daughter, the siphoner, the mean girl. They knew of her, but they never really bothered to get to know her; and Lizzie tried not to care, but sometimes, like the times Landon had recited Hope's favorite milkshake like it was the most important information he'd ever learned—even more than her ability to turn into a wolf whenever she felt like it—she wished that there was someone paying that close attention to her, just so that he would know how to make her happy.

Lizzie couldn't remember the last time someone tried to make her happy just so that Lizzie would be happy. Even her father and sister only tried to keep her happy because when Lizzie was happy, she didn't throw tantrums that threatened to destroy the kitchen.

As she took the rose, MG gestured to a group of witches, who sent a shower of shining confetti raining down on her like she was the princess in a fairy-tale.

When she looked back at him, MG—the boy who seemed to want to be her prince, unlike the absent Rafael—was still wearing a hopeful smile.

Though she was disappointed that Rafael hadn't shown up, since the alternative was making her entrance into her own party pathetically alone, Lizzie took MG's offered arm and let him accompany her the rest of the way down the stairs, cueing the deejay to play her favorite song as they went.

Lizzie stood giggling as MG danced around her, starting to dance herself a moment later with his encouragement.

When the next song started, everyone cleared the dance floor, making room for MG to show off his spectacular dance moves. Lizzie cheered and clapped along with everyone else until he approached her with a wide grin.

"You've got moves," Lizzie complimented.

MG's smile somehow got even bigger in response as he reached out towards her and gestured for her to join him, promising that she hadn't seen anything yet.

Lizzie followed MG's lead and tried to keep up with him, but even her best dance moves were no match for his impressive skills. Still, throughout the song, he never disparaged her lesser abilities, continually smiling and looking pleased, and even grateful, to be dancing with her.

MG was being so nice to her, and going out of his way to make sure that she was having a good time at her birthday party. Lizzie was sure that Josie had asked him to do this, though it wasn't like her twin to be cynical, so she wasn't sure what had made Josie think that Rafael would stand her up, but she was grateful for her sister's contingency plan and wanted to thank her right away for being so considerate and coming up with a plan to save the day for Lizzie.

But as Lizzie glanced around the party, she couldn't see Josie anywhere,

"What's wrong?" MG had to shout so that Lizzie could hear him over the music and noise the party guests were making.

"I can't see Josie," Lizzie replied, equally loudly, too distracted by her sister's absence to think of MG's vampire hearing. "I left before she did, and she said she would catch up with me, but I can't find her anywhere."

"It's only been a few minutes since you got here, she might just still be getting ready," MG tried to reassure her.

But Lizzie wasn't convinced. Her breathing was growing shallow and heavy in a way that was more than just being winded from the dancing she'd done.

MG must have heard her breathing change, because he quickly changed his tune from his previous laissez-faire attitude.

"Do you want to go look for her?" he asked.

Lizzie nodded emphatically.

"Okay, then we'll go look for her," MG decided.

"You don't have to come, I'm sure you don't want to miss the party," Lizzie said.

"This party wouldn't be any fun without my beautiful date," MG insisted. "And once we find Josie, we can come back. I can't see them trying to shut down the party without either of the birthday girls here."

Lizzie offered him a shy smile.

MG took Lizzie's hand and pulled her with him through the crowd of partygoers, ignoring the wolf whistles and cat calls that, without vampire hearing, fortunately Lizzie couldn't hear.

* * *

Even once they made it outside, MG still didn't let go of Lizzie's hand.

He didn't know when he would next get the chance to touch her like this, so he wanted to savor it for as long as he could.

"Um, okay, what was Josie wearing, what does her dress look like?" MG asked Lizzie.

"She wouldn't be just be hanging around outside for no reason, MG! It's freezing out here!" Lizzie complained.

"Oh, right, sorry," MG's chivalrous instincts took over and her reluctantly let of Lizzie's hand to take off his suit jacket and held it open for her. "Here."

Lizzie slipped her arms through the sleeves and pulled the jacket tight around her torso rather than buttoning it, crossing her arms over her chest to keep it in place.

"Thank you," Lizzie said.

"Okay, let's start with our best case scenario: Josie is putting on lip gloss, or whatever, in your room, and we'll either find her there, or run into her on the way," MG proposed.

Lizzie agreed to the plan, and they walked at a brisk pace to the dorms, but Lizzie and Josie's room was empty when they arrived.

"I was hoping she would be here," Lizzie sighed.

"Hey, it's okay," MG told her. "We might have just missed her. Do you want to go back to the party and see if she's there?"

"There's somewhere else I think we should check first," Lizzie countered.

She took MG's hand and led him to her father's office. Lizzie placed her hand on the door, prepared to siphon the boundary spell to get it if she needed to, but as she had suspected, the spell was no longer there.

Lizzie forcefully pushed the door open.

"Jo?" she called out. "Are either of you here?"

"What do you mean, 'either of you?'" MG asked.

"Oh, right, no one is supposed to know," Lizzie recalled. "Josie's and my biological mother is mysteriously back from the dead, and she should be trapped in this office by a boundary spell, but she isn't here, which means that my sweet, naïve, trusting sister siphoned the spell and let her out."

"That's… insane, are you okay?" MG questioned.

"What? I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Lizzie responded.

"Because your biological mother, who died before you were even born, came back to life on your birthday, which the mother who raised you isn't here for," MG said.

"Like you just said, Caroline Forbes is my mother. The only thing Josette Laughlin gave me was her family's history of mental instability. I don't owe her anything, and I don't need her," Lizzie insisted.

"And I guess Josie didn't share your opinion," MG inferred.

"They share a name, MG," Lizzie replied. "A name, and a hair color, and nearly identical personalities. I mean, how is that fair? Josie inherits everything good about her, and I get none of it."

"They're really that alike?" MG asked.

Lizzie nodded.

"She was a doctor, a combat medic in the Army," Lizzie explained. "Her whole life was about helping and taking care of other people, just like Josie. She was kind, and noble, and brave, just like Josie. And she would have had to have been good at math, just like Josie. Josie knew exactly who she was right away, while I had no idea, and they had this instant connection while my dad was questioning her. Dad and I were so suspicious of her, but for Josie, it was like she'd finally found something she'd been looking for her whole life."

"So you think that after you left for the party, Josie came in here to spend more time bonding with your biological mother, and now they're both gone," MG summarized. "Well, I'm not Josie, but if my biological mother, who I had practically everything in common with, and whose appearance answered all of my questions about why I am the way I am, suddenly appeared on my birthday, and had to spend the day locked in an office, I think that I would invite her to come celebrate with me."

"Josie must have invited her to the party," Lizzie murmured. "But then how did we not see her at the party or on the way here? We need to get back to the party, right now!"

MG laced their fingers together and gently squeezed Lizzie's hand.

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

"I trust you," Lizzie nodded.

MG wrapped his arms tightly around Lizzie's waist and lifted her up before vampire-speeding them to the entrance to the great hall.

He set her down gently on the first stair.

"Are you feeling okay? You don't get motion sickness, do you?" MG asked.

"I'm fine," Lizzie assured him. "That was actually very cool."

MG smiled at her, then quickly turned around when he heard footsteps coming from the nearby woods.

"MG? What's wrong?" Lizzie questioned in a frightened whisper.

"Someone is in the woods, coming towards us," MG whispered back.

MG positioned himself so that he was standing in front of Lizzie in a defensive stance, close enough so that she could reach out and siphon magic from him if she needed to.

"Oh, relax Lancelot, it's just me, no one is trying to hurt your lady," a familiar voice drawled as she approached.

"Penelope, we have talked about you sneaking up on me!" MG exclaimed.

"Whatever, I probably wasn't listening," Penelope shrugged. "What are you two doing out here? I would have thought there wasn't anything important enough to make the birthday girl miss her own party."

"The other birthday girl is what's so important," Lizzie replied, stepping out from behind MG now that they knew it wasn't a monster who was approaching. "We're looking for Josie, have you seen her?"

Penelope's expression instantaneously shifted from scornful to concerned.

"I haven't seen her, and I've been looking for her too. Where have you guys checked?"

"When she wasn't at the party, we looked in our room and in our dad's office, but she wasn't there. We thought we might have just missed her, so we were coming to check the party again," Lizzie answered.

"I was just in there, I just stepped outside a second ago to check the path," Penelope informed them. "Josie isn't at the party. Your date is, though. Your real date, I mean."

MG braced himself for Lizzie to run off to join Rafael and leave him and Penelope to search for Josie, but Lizzie barely noticed Penelope's words.

"So if she isn't at the party, or on her way to the party, or in our room, or Dad's office, where could she be?" Lizzie wondered.

Before MG or Penelope could answer, Hope strutted past them carrying a shovel and wearing a poufy ball gown that looked purple under the moonlight, but could have been burgundy or red in better lighting.

"What is she doing?" Lizzie whispered.

"I know you're not good at social interactions, Hope, but even you should know that the party's inside," Penelope called out.

"And yet, here all of you are," Hope shot back. "Whatever, I have something that's actually important to do, so I don't have time to listen to you criticize me for—"

"For acting like you're better than all of us because you're always alone and never have any fun?" Lizzie cut in. "We get it: you're tough and independent, and mature beyond your years after all of the loss and grief you've been through. Message received. You don't have to keep reminding us that you think we're all shallow, immature, ignorant cowards every time we try to have fun or do something that makes us happy, just because you think that life is something we all have to suffer through and only you will be strong enough to survive."

"Right, that's exactly what I don't have time for," Hope answered. "Your dad asked for my help, leading the search and rescue team for Josie."

"Well, you're a little late to the party on that one, we've all been looking for her for at least half an hour and we haven't seen her yet," Penelope chimed in.

"You haven't seen her because her demon-possessed biological mother buried her alive in the cemetery," Hope sighed impatiently.

"Bio-Mom did what?!" Lizzie cried.

"Hey, it's going to be okay, we'll find her," MG tried to reassure her, one hand rubbing soothing circles on her back and the other wiping away her tears.

"That's why I can't breathe," Lizzie realized. "When I realized that Josie wasn't at the party, I couldn't breathe, but I thought I was just winded because I was dancing, and then I thought I was having a panic attack, that wouldn't end, but it's actually twin pain because Josie is literally suffocating right now. We have to find her!"

"We're coming with you," MG told Hope, leaning away from Lizzie momentarily to grab a shovel for each of them. Penelope took an axe for herself and stepped forward in the direction Hope had been going.

Hope looked appraisingly at Lizzie—at her tear-stained but still perfectly made up face, her blonde curls hanging in a peppy high ponytail, her sparkly blue flapper dress covered by MG's jacket—clearly convinced that she would not be an asset to the group.

"Fine," Hope snapped. "But you need to get your emotions under control," she ordered Lizzie. "Otherwise you'll be useless to me and to Josie."

"Sorry we can't all be emotionless robot soldiers like you, Hope," Lizzie retorted. "Excuse me for being upset that my sister might be dying."

"Which is why we need to go find her. Now."

The four of them ran as fast as they could in their formalwear to the cemetery.

"MG, listen for her breathing," Hope ordered.

"I hear something," MG told them.

He tossed one of the shovels he was carrying to the ground and started digging with the other.

Less than a minute later, they could see something moving just below the surface, but as soon as its face was uncovered, they saw that it wasn't Josie.

Lizzie screamed.

Penelope stepped forward to stab the zombie in the jugular with the end of her shovel, but that didn't seem to have any effect on it.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to stab a zombie in the brain to kill it," Lizzie suggested.

MG and Penelope both looked at Lizzie, stunned, leaving Hope to sigh exasperatedly and drive the end of her shovel through the zombie's head, effectively killing it.

"She's right, to kill a walker you have to go for the brains, everybody knows that," MG corroborated.

"Every nerd, maybe," Penelope challenged.

"How did you know that, actually?" MG asked Lizzie.

" _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_ ," Lizzie admitted sheepishly. "I love Jane Austen, so I thought it might be fun to read."

MG grinned at her so widely that it looked like his face might be in danger of splitting in half.

"Um, guys?" Hope tried to get their attention. "There's more where that came from."

At least a dozen zombies were approaching them.

"MG, go find Josie. Take Lizzie with you. Penelope and I can take care of them," Hope commanded.

"We're on it," MG replied, picking Lizzie up and vampire-speeding further into the cemetery.

"Josie?" he called out.

Lizzie screamed her sister's name repeatedly.

"I hear her," MG told Lizzie.

He started digging again where he'd heard the noise, only to discover another zombie.

Lizzie screamed as its filthy hands reached out as if to touch her, its arms reaching within inches of her waist. As she backed away as quickly as she could, she tripped over the uneven ground and fell backwards.

"Don't even think about touching her!" MG shouted as he stabbed the zombie through its skull.

"Are you okay?" MG asked, pulling Lizzie to her feet.

"I'm fine, but my dress is ruined!" Lizzie pouted.

"It's just a dress, who cares?" Hope appeared out of nowhere, brandishing an axe. "Hurry up, MG, we're running out of time."

MG closed his eyes, trying to shut out all of his senses except his hearing.

Hope's and Penelope's heavy breathing.

Lizzie's more shallow, labored breaths.

The rustling of leaves.

And further out, muffled whimpering.

"I've got her," MG announced, speeding off, the three girls running as fast as they could after him.

Hope was the first to catch up, helping him to dig as soon as she got there. He felt, rather than saw, Lizzie's and Penelope's presence when they made it a moment later.

They kept digging until a small, dirty, but very much living human hand reached up out of the dirt.

"Josie?!" Lizzie screamed.

MG tugged on Josie's hand, pulling her out of the dirt. Josie broke through the surface crying and gasping for breath.

Lizzie let out a gasp from behind him as the pressure on her lungs eased as well.

"Josie," Lizzie cried, rushing forward to hug her twin.

"Lizzie, something evil possessed Jo, and it made her do this to me," Josie gasped out. "How did you guys find me?"

"The talisman," Hope murmured. "It worked."

"What's it supposed to do?" Josie questioned.

"Make quiet things heard," Hope answered.

* * *

Lizzie couldn't stand the sound of Josie's crying any longer.

She'd cried quite a bit herself, after she and her sister had siphoned the life out of their biological mother, but it was now past midnight, and Josie showed no signs of stopping her tears.

Lizzie didn't blame Josie for being emotional: over the course of the day—her sixteenth birthday, no less—she'd met her biological mother, formed an instant connection with her, been buried alive by the evil spirit that possessed her biological mother's body, and been forced to essentially kill her biological mother to ensure that whatever had possessed her couldn't hurt Josie, Lizzie, or anyone else.

But Lizzie didn't have the same connection to Jo, so while Josie sobbed in her bed in their room, and Alaric had gone out briefly to tend to Jo's grave before locking himself in his office to have some privacy while he cried over losing the love of his life and mother of his children—again, Lizzie felt like she needed to find a happier place to be while she let them grieve in peace.

So she slipped out of her room without Josie noticing, and she ended up in the great hall, reasoning that she could supervise the clean-up of the party decorations, or maybe manage to salvage a piece of birthday cake. At the very least, she appreciated the drama of sitting alone, surrounded by the remains of the birthday party she had barely been able to attend, because she had nowhere else to go.

But when she entered the hall, she quickly realized that she wasn't alone.

"Hey, you," she greeted. "Long time, no see."

MG, still wearing his suit—including the jacket, which Lizzie had returned before she'd gone to get a shower and change into comfy clothes—was sweeping up the confetti on the floor.

"Hey, Lizzie," he replied. "What are you doing here?"

Lizzie shrugged.

"Don't really have anywhere else to go," she answered. "What are you doing here, who put you on clean-up duty?"

"I just didn't want you and Josie to have to worry about it," he responded. "And since I was in charge of putting the decorations up, it made sense that I should be in charge of taking them all down."

"You decorated for the party?" Lizzie questioned.

"Well, I had help, but yeah, I guess," MG confirmed. "Rafael got the werewolves to help him move the furniture out, and there were some either volunteers who helped. Why?"

"I remember thinking when I came downstairs that whoever had organized the party had made exactly what I'd dreamed that my sweet sixteen would look like," Lizzie told him.

MG smiled shyly.

"I know you've been planning this party for years, and I wanted you to be happy with it," he said.

"And I was only here for ten minutes of it, and Josie didn't get to come at all," Lizzie lamented. "Did you come back to the party, after everything?"

"No, I told you, it wouldn't be any fun without you."

"You're sweet," Lizzie smiled.

"Do you want to keep your name balloons?" MG awkwardly changed the subject.

"I kind of do, actually," Lizzie answered.

MG had already tied them all to a weight, and the letters together. Lizzie put a barrier spell on each balloon so that the air couldn't escape and make the balloons deflate.

Then Lizzie thought about why she had the magic to perform the spell and paused.

"She's gone, MG," Lizzie announced.

"What? Who's gone?"

"Bio-Mom," Lizzie sighed. "Josie and I had to siphon the magic of whatever evil spirit was possessing her, which was also the magic that was keeping her alive. We watched her literally vanish before our eyes. That's why I have nowhere to go. Josie is sobbing her eyes out in our room, Dad is crying in his office, and I can't imagine that either of them wants me hanging around when I didn't know her and I'm not devastated and weeping like they are."

"I'm sorry," MG offered. "And it's okay if you're sad."

"I was sad," Lizzie insisted. "I cried before, during, and after the spell. But I don't feel like I've suffered this devastating loss the way they have. I didn't know her, and I'm not anything like her. I guess now I just feel like we had this one very strange day where she was alive, and now everything is back to normal."

"If that's how you feel," was all MG said in response.

"Did they serve the birthday cake without us?" Lizzie asked, needing to fill the silence.

"They did, sorry," MG grimaced.

"This might be the worst birthday ever," Lizzie complained. "And that's including our fourth, which was a week after our mother's husband died. But at least that year neither of us nearly died, and we did get a cake. And presents. We didn't get any presents this year, on account of our biological mother coming back to life."

"That reminds me, with all of craziness, I never got a chance to give you two your birthday presents," MG spoke up.

"Seriously? You did more than enough for us today," Lizzie raised her eyebrows. "If it weren't for you, Josie would have died."

"Don't sell yourself short. You were the first one to notice that she was missing," MG insisted.

"And what good did that do? Penelope noticed, you would have noticed eventually, Dad noticed and sent Hope to find her. All I did was insist on looking for her in places where she wasn't."

"But you couldn't have known that," MG pointed.

"And then what did I do," Lizzie continued. "I screamed and cried and complained about being cold and getting my dress dirty. I could have known all along what had happened to Josie if I'd realized that I was feeling her pain as she suffocated."

"Hey, listen to me," MG rested his hands on Lizzie's shoulders so she had to face him as he spoke. "Josie is fine, and there is no point beating yourself up over what you did or didn't do to try to help her. She's fine."

"Remember, after the gargoyle, when I acted like I was a hero?" Lizzie asked.

MG nodded.

"I'm not a hero," Lizzie shook her head sadly. "Not even close. And after tonight, I'm practically the only one. You're a hero; you're the one who saved her. Hope and Penelope, even, are heroes. So is Josie. Dad and Josie would probably say that Bio-Mom is a hero, too—and I think they'd be right, since sacrificing yourself to save your children who you only just met that day is pretty heroic. It's only me who isn't."

MG handed Lizzie a gift-wrapped box.

"Here," he told her. "I obviously didn't know this when I bought it for you, but after today it seems more fitting than ever."

Lizzie carefully tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a jewelry box underneath.

"MG…" Lizzie trailed off.

"Open it," MG encouraged.

Lizzie lifted up the top of the box, gasping when she saw the contents.

Inside was a beautiful gold locket in the shape of a heart, engraved with an ornate script 'L' on the front. Lizzie pried the two halves of the locket apart to see if there were already pictures inside. On one side of the locket was an old picture of Lizzie's mother, Caroline, when she'd been about Lizzie's age, with Caroline's mother, Liz, whom Lizzie had been named after; and on the other side was a picture of Caroline with Lizzie that had been taken within a year or two.

"So you never forget who you come from," MG offered quietly.

"This is… perfect. Thank you so much, MG, I love it," Lizzie thanked him, wrapping her arms around his neck to give him a hug before handing him the locket and turning around and holding her hair out of the way so that he could clasp the locket around her neck.

"So you saved Josie's life, organized this amazing party, and picked out presents for us," Lizzie listed. "You might be this birthday's only redeeming factor."

"I don't know if I'd say that," MG demurred.

"Well, I just did, so clearly I've decided it's true," Lizzie declared. "And stop cleaning up, everyone knows the cook doesn't clean. You've done enough, let this be someone else's problem."

Lizzie sat down on the stairs and motioned for MG to join her, which she did.

"It seems like forever ago that I was making my grand entrance on these stairs," Lizzie mused. "Thanks for rescuing me from having to walk in pathetically alone, by the way."

"Did you see Rafael? I know he was supposed to be your date to the party," MG inquired, deliberately casual.

"I saw him earlier. He was slow-dancing with Hope, and they looked pretty cozy, so I didn't think it would do me any good to interrupt," Lizzie replied.

"Understood," MG nodded sympathetically.

"And if that wasn't bad enough, I heard him tell her that he'd really dodged a bullet with me not being at the party, so that he didn't have to tell me in person, on my birthday, that he didn't like me and that sleeping with me was a mistake. So that's over, and at least this way I wasn't humiliated in front of everyone at my party in the process," Lizzie shrugged resignedly.

"You…"

"Last night. I was upset over not winning the seat on the council and Penelope telling me that she'd schemed to make sure I didn't win to teach me a lesson for being the worst person ever, and he was upset over Landon getting sent away and he knew I liked him, so…" Lizzie trailed off.

She saw MG's fists clench and misinterpreted his anger.

"Yeah, I know, that's what I deserve for being such a sl—"

"No!" MG interrupted. "Hey, no, no, no. You know I would never think that about you."

"You seem upset," Lizzie explained.

"Not with you!" MG corrected. "I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at him for taking advantage of you!"

"He didn't!" Lizzie insisted. "I was the one who initiated things, he just… didn't say no."

"And he should have," MG told her. "He knew that he didn't want a relationship with you and that sleeping with you would mean nothing to him, and he knew that you did like him and that it would mean something to you. He probably would have slept with the first willing girl he found that night, and it just happened to be you. He took advantage of your crush on him, just like he did when he agreed to be your date to the party in exchange for you voting to let Landon stay at the school."

"Wow," Lizzie stated flatly. "You're right. How did I not see that he was such a manipulative jerk?"

"Sometimes you only see what you want to see," MG said. "And for the record, I don't think you're the worst person ever, and I don't think Penelope does either after tonight. I think all she's ever wanted from you was to see that you care about Josie as much as Josie cares about you, and I think missing your own birthday party and ruining your dress to save her fit the bill."

"She told me it was my fault they broke up," Lizzie told him. "Apparently I am a black hole of love and time and energy, which ensures that Josie can't have a relationship because she's always taking care of me."

"That's harsh," MG reacted. "And I don't think that's right, either. You know I love Josie, but her setting up her whole life to revolve around you, even at the expense of her other relationships, is her choice. But since Penelope obviously didn't want to consider that, she placed all the blame on you."

"But it isn't Josie's fault that I'm such a mess that I need her to take care of me all the time," Lizzie pointed out.

"You aren't a mess," MG insisted. "You're beautiful, and smart, and loving, and ambitious, and persistent, and charming."

"Do you really mean that?" Lizzie whispered.

"You're the one who told me I was a horrible liar," MG reminded her. "Come on."

MG stood up and offered his hand to Lizzie, who took it and allowed him to pull her into a standing position.

"Now what are we doing?" Lizzie asked.

"You said that you saw Rafael and Hope slow-dancing, right?" MG responded. "Well, we missed the slow dance at the party, so we're going to do it now."

"It's the middle of the night!" Lizzie exclaimed. "And I'm wearing sweats."

"And you're totally pulling it off," MG replied, making Lizzie giggle.

He walked over to the abandoned sound system, turning the volume down and choosing a song. By the time he met Lizzie in the center in the middle of the dance floor, a soft acoustic cover of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" had started playing.

MG faced Lizzie and bowed, then she playfully curtsied in response. Then he took her hand, placing his other hand on her waist as she rested hers on his shoulder, and they began swaying to the music.

"This song is perfect for you," MG noted.

"Right, because I'm a witch," Lizzie nodded. "So I literally do magic."

"That isn't why," MG responded. "I think you'd still be a little magic even if you weren't a witch."

MG's warm gaze and even warmer smile made Lizzie feel like he thought she was just as beautiful now—wearing a red hoodie, black sweats, and slippers; with no makeup and hair that had been allowed to dry naturally—as she had earlier in her flashy party dress with hair and makeup that had taken Josie hours to do, and she was so overwhelmed by that notion that she blushed and had to look away.

"Do you want to talk about it?" MG asked. "About any of the things that happened today? Your mom, your biological mother, the zombies, Rafael?"

"She told me that I have a big heart," Lizzie said, feeling the words spill out of her without even realizing that they had been weighing on her mind.

"That's true," MG agreed.

"You can say that, because you know me," Lizzie exclaimed, feeling tears threatening to fall. "But she doesn't know me. All she knows about me is that I was too selfish and suspicious to even want to talk to her."

MG remained silent, sensing that Lizzie had more to say.

"She told me that she loved me," Lizzie cried, the tears falling freely down her cheeks now. "But she doesn't know me. How does she know if she loves me if she doesn't even know me?"

Lizzie sniffled and furiously wiped her tears from her cheeks using the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

"And if you're going to tell someone that you love them, shouldn't you have to know that their favorite color is lavender, and their favorite dessert is key lime pie?"

Lizzie finally dissolved into an incoherent mess of tears, burying her face in MG's shoulder.

"You love me," Lizzie finally choked out. "I should have realized it sooner, but you were my Prince Charming tonight, MG, the way you tried so hard to make sure that I had the perfect night, even though we didn't get to enjoy it; and you saved my sister's life; and when you listed all of my favorite things like they really mattered to you, I realized that you know me—all of me, the good and the bad—and you love me anyway, which is all I've ever wanted."

Lizzie felt MG take a shuddering breath, and she was terrified that she'd completely misread the situation, and now he was trying to figure out a way to tell her that she was wrong, that he'd only been doing Josie a favor like Lizzie had originally thought, that wouldn't provoke a tantrum or risk ending his friendship with Josie.

That fear made Lizzie realized how badly she wanted to be right, how much she wanted him to love her. The idea that this boy, who was almost as effortlessly good and selfless as her twin, could actually love her made her feel like even with her darkness and her intense highs and lows and her struggle to keep control of her emotions and her magic, there had to be some good inside her.

MG gently lifted Lizzie's chin so that she had to look him in the eye as he spoke.

"I am so in love with you, Elizabeth Saltzman," he proclaimed.

Lizzie threw her arms around his neck as his own wrapped tightly around her waist, and he could hear her laugh in his ear.

"Are you really sure you want to bring full names into this, Milton?"

"You can call me whatever you want, as long as you'll let me be yours," he vowed solemnly.

Lizzie's answering smile was the brightest he'd ever seen.

And then she was leaning in, pressing her lips against his, softly, timidly, questioningly, as if she was somehow still not completely certain that this was what he wanted.

MG immediately kissed her back, keeping it just as sweet and gentle, but trying to make sure she knew that this moment was his every wildest dream come true.

After a moment, Lizzie needed to pull away so she could breathe.

"I'm not sure that I can say that, yet," Lizzie confessed shyly.

MG was stunned that she was even thinking about it, knowing that him already being head over heels in love with her before they were even in a relationship put them on unequal footing.

"That's okay, whenever you're ready," he stammered.

The song ended, leaving them in silence.

"I know this is going to sound presumptuous, but it's late, and I'm tired, but I'm not sure that Josie's finished crying yet, so could I maybe crash with you tonight?" Lizzie asked.

"Um, yeah, sure, of course," MG agreed.

"Thanks," Lizzie smiled, picking up the balloons that spelled out her and her sister's names in one hand and extending the other to MG, who happily took it and laced their fingers together.

Lizzie abandoned the balloons just inside the door of MG's room, gratefully collapsing on the bed and curling up into a ball under the blankets, exhausted after such an emotional and tumultuous day.

MG slid into bed after her, wrapping his arms around her and leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Goodnight, beautiful," he whispered.

When she didn't respond, he assumed she was already asleep and quickly fell asleep himself.

Certain that he didn't know she was still awake, Lizzie silently mouthed the words to herself as if testing them to see what it would be like to say them out loud to him. Feeling comfortable and cherished in his warm embrace, Lizzie had to admit that she was looking forward to the day that she could.


	4. You're so very special

I'm sorry that the chapter I'm writing based on the mid-season finale is getting longer and more complicated than I thought it would be, so here's a quick missing scene from episode 3 that I've been thinking about for a while for you to read while you're waiting!

The title for this (that I only just thought of a second ago-am I the only one who struggles with chapter titles?) comes from Radiohead's "Creep."

And a very Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating!

* * *

Where had everyone gone, MG wondered.

He'd spent so much time with Dana trying to make Lizzie jealous, but now he couldn't see her anywhere.

In fact, as he looked around, he couldn't see Josie either. And Hope was missing as well.

He could understand why Lizzie had left, after Connor had thrown that milkshake all over her.

MG was kicking himself for not standing up for her, for standing there and ignoring her as that entire group of bullies made her their sole target.

He'd been so preoccupied with his plan to get Lizzie's attention that he'd ended up paying her no attention at all, and it had ended up hurting her and, ironically, making his entire plan futile without her there to witness it.

He was starting to regret taking Penelope's advice.

Sure, Lizzie's defensive reaction to Dana speaking to him had been a good sign that she cared about him, or at least felt possessive over him (which MG had no objections to, for the record), but now he worried that she would think that she was just another conquest, just another name on a list, that she could have been anyone—instead of being _the one_.

Lizzie hated feeling like she wasn't important, like she didn't matter. And it wasn't exactly an irrational fear, since she was a twin—spending her entire life sharing everything and competing over her parents' attention, her mother was frequently out of the country, and her father clearly prioritized Hope over his own daughters—and though MG would never say anything to his friend, he found it equally obvious that Josie was Alaric's favorite of the twins: the one who reminded him of his late wife in temperament, in appearance, even in their shared name, while Lizzie only served as a reminder of the worst the Gemini Coven had to offer.

So in MG's opinion at least, Lizzie had every reason to be insecure, even though those insecurities were what had gotten them all into trouble in the first place.

He wasn't sure how they'd all seemed to have forgotten that he had vampire hearing, but it hadn't seemed to occur to anyone that he knew what Dana had said to Lizzie that had prompted her to decide to use magic to win the game at all costs, and what she had said that had made Lizzie punch her, and MG agreed with Lizzie's assessment that she'd been provoked.

The catty remarks that Dana and Lizzie threw back and forth about each other's appearance or popularity were one thing, but criticizing Lizzie for her mental illness crossed a line.

Lizzie was so ashamed of her bipolar disorder and of the symptoms that went with it, which made her feel impossibly different from other students in a way that meant they would never be able to completely relate to her. Even her own twin sister couldn't fully understand the way Lizzie's mind worked, the way her emotions were so intense, the way she lost control.

MG had listened to Josie make excuses for Lizzie, had watched as she cleaned up the messes that Lizzie's tantrums often left in their wake, but even though Josie was the most sympathetic, even she still seemed to think of Lizzie's illness as a problem that needed to be solved, or at least hidden, rather than something that was just a part of Lizzie was, like her blue eyes or her sweet tooth.

Lizzie's father and sister acted like her illness was their burden to bear as well, even though they had no idea what it was like to feel like your own mind didn't work the way everyone else's did, like theirs was normal and yours was wrong.

Like they were healthy and normal, and you were broken.

MG didn't think that he had rose-colored glasses on when it came to Lizzie. He knew that she could be self-centered, dramatic, emotional, unobservant, critical, superficial; but he also knew that she was more than just the shallow mean girl that so many other students at the school had written her off as.

He had been looking for Lizzie when he'd found Kaleb feeding from Dana.

He'd thought she might have stalked off to hide on the bus so that she wouldn't have to see or talk to anyone.

Instead, Kaleb was the one taking advantage of the privacy the empty bus offered.

MG reluctantly agreed to keep Kaleb's secret, but he felt uneasy about the whole thing. He knew that his friend saw him as a goody-two-shoes, but the rule against feeding on humans seemed like one that needed to be followed to make sure the school's secrets were kept safe.

But he didn't want to get on Kaleb's bad side, and as guilty as he felt over it, saving Dana from losing some blood didn't seem worth the risk.

MG resolved to monitor the situation, make sure that Kaleb didn't call attention to himself or feed from someone he shouldn't.

But he still hadn't found Lizzie.

He now felt comfortable assuming that she'd gone back to the school. But although MG thought that Lizzie wasn't at fault for the fight at the game yesterday, the headmaster clearly didn't see it that way, so he found it hard to believe that Dr. Saltzman hadn't insisted that Lizzie return to face the rest of their punishment with the rest of them.

And why had Josie and Hope been allowed to leave too?

And on that note, why was Hope even there? She wasn't even at the game, and as Lizzie had pointed out, Hope never got in trouble for anything, even when she broke the rules.

But Josie was a rule-follower. So if she'd blatantly shirked her punishment and left, it must have been for a very good reason.

And for one of the Saltzman twins to voluntarily go anywhere with Hope Mikaelson, there had to be something very strange and sinister going on.

When the sun started to set and the remaining Salvatore School students had given up even the appearance of doing anything productive, MG approached Dorian, who was sitting alone at a table outside the Mystic Grill, to find out what was happening and when they could go back to school.

"What is going on? Where's everyone gone?" MG asked Dorian.

"What are you talking about?" Dorian returned suspiciously.

"Both of the twins and Hope are gone," MG told him.

"Lizzie ran out of here like a bat out of Hell hours ago, in one of those moods where anyone who crosses her ends up on her hit list, so I let her go to change clothes and complain to her dad about how mean the Mystic Falls High kids were to her. I thought he'd make her come back, but I guess not," Dorian answered. "Josie wanted to check on her, and I needed to get some research to her dad, so I sent her back to the school. Of the three of them, Josie was the only one who asked permission to leave."

"So when are we done here?" MG asked. "It'll be dark soon."

Dorian looked up, as if he'd been sitting there for so long he hadn't even noticed the passage of time.

"All right, we can start loading up the bus now," Dorian replied, loud enough that the vampires and werewolves, with their enhanced hearing abilities, would be able to hear him. "It isn't like any of you have accomplished anything anyway," he grumbled more quietly.

MG almost laughed out loud. He'd spent a little time cleaning up some graffiti, but only because he'd known Lizzie wasn't going to, and even so, he'd still abandoned his post after only a few minutes. The only other people he'd seen actually make an effort were Josie and Hope, before they'd left early.

Still, for a group of people who hadn't actually done much work, the students seemed very excited to get to go back home.

After returning the equipment they'd only pretended to use away, pairs of students in navy and grey filled up the rows of seats in the bus, chattering away animatedly without a care in the world.

They probably hadn't even noticed the three missing girls, and those that had wouldn't have cared. The student body of the Salvatore School was small enough that everyone knew everyone else, but Hope's deliberate emotional withdrawal from everyone meant she didn't exactly have a lot of friends, Josie was quiet enough that she could regularly fade into the background even though she was well-liked among her classmates, and Lizzie… well, Lizzie was misunderstood and underappreciated by people who didn't know her but thought they did.

MG sat in the front row of seats next to the door, where no one ever wanted to sit—the elementary school notion that the cool kids sat in the back of the bus and the nerds sat up front apparently still rang true even for teenagers who attended a school for supernatural creatures—and waited for Dorian to take his seat on the bus and give permission for them to go back to school.

Dorian, however, seemed to be in no hurry. He leisurely walked up and down the aisle of the bus, taking attendance, though he didn't mention Lizzie, Josie, or Hope, probably not wanting to cause a fuss over their absence.

MG grew more and more impatient with Dorian's methodical pace, sighing in relief when Dorian finally took his seat behind the bus driver and instructed him to drive them back to the school.

* * *

MG was the first one off the bus when it came to a stop in the driveway less than ten minutes later.

He forcefully pushed open the doors, only to find the entrance hall empty.

"Jo?" he called out. "Lizzie? Josie?"

He heard hushed voices coming from the Great Hall and followed them.

"You can't tell him anything," Alaric ordered.

"Why? So that he can come as close to dying as Lizzie did? Or would you risk your life to save any of your students except your daughters?" Josie challenged bitterly.

Lizzie had nearly…?

MG didn't care if he was welcome, or if he stumbled upon whatever secret the headmaster seemed determined to keep from him, he needed to see for himself that she was okay.

"Who am I kidding, of course that's an honor only reserved for Hope," Josie muttered. Her father was surely unable to hear, but MG's vampire hearing caught her complaint easily.

The scene in the Great Hall as MG rushed over the threshold certainly didn't look suspicious, at least at first.

Josie was sitting on the floor next to Lizzie, who seemed to be lying down, though most of her midsection was blocked from his view by Josie's body, so MG couldn't see if she was injured.

Hope had her back to him, so all MG could see was her copper-colored hair falling over the back of her navy blue shirt as she swept up what looked like rock into a dustpan.

Alaric stood over the three girls, until it evidently became clear to him that none of them were speaking to him, so he announced that he was going to his office.

No one responded.

"Oh, MG," Alaric greeted as he saw him standing in the doorway. "I didn't know everyone was back. In that case, I should check in with Dorian so we can discuss what happened today."

"I should come too," Hope declared.

Alaric sent an uncertain look at his daughters.

"Um, I don't think that's necessary, but thank you, Hope," Alaric responded.

Hope shot a disbelieving look at him before fixing the twins with an angry glare.

"You two really won't be happy unless I have nothing, will you?" Hope snapped. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but it's good for the school to have someone as powerful as me around to protect it."

Then Hope stormed out of the room, and Alaric shrugged and followed a moment later.

MG stepped closer to Josie and Lizzie.

"Hey," he greeted quietly.

"Hey, MG. Sorry about all of that," Josie replied.

"What happened? It must have been something pretty big for you to get so angry," MG wondered.

Instead of answering, Josie moved so that MG could see Lizzie behind her.

The bottom of the navy sweater she wore—which was strange in and of itself, since Lizzie only rarely wore navy because Hope wore it all the time, so Lizzie preferred to wear grey, white, and red—was torn off, and the exposed skin of her abdomen was marked with fading grey lines, like scratches from a cat's claws, but bigger and deeper.

She was more still than MG had ever seen her. MG was used to seeing Lizzie constantly on the move—planning something, talking to someone, making her way around the school like she owned it—but now she was lying very still, as if moving was a challenging task.

"What happened?" MG asked.

"She was attacked by a gargoyle," Josie answered.

"A gargoyle?" MG repeated incredulously.

"Yes. Like from _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ ," Josie explained. "A statue brought to life. Apparently this one was in the garden when Lizzie got back. One of the primary school students that was out there, Pedro, told us that Lizzie tried to get them inside to safety, but he followed them, so she siphoned some magic from him and sent him to find Dad while she did the spell, but the gargoyle attacked her before she could get away."

MG was impressed. If only everyone who thought Lizzie was nothing more than a shallow mean girl could see how selfless and quick-thinking she'd been, sacrificing herself to make sure that another student was safe.

"What was the spell she did?" MG asked.

"A containment spell," Josie answered. "I had to take it down so that Hope and I could get back inside. She was trying to make sure the gargoyle couldn't escape and hurt anyone else."

MG had thought he was impressed with Lizzie before, but that was nothing compared to how he felt now. She hadn't just sacrificed herself to save one other student, she'd risked her own life to save all of the students who were out doing community service, everyone who lived in Mystic Falls, and whoever else the gargoyle might have been able to hurt if no one was able to stop him.

"And still, people at this school say that she's selfish," MG shook his head.

"Exactly," Josie rolled her eyes.

Lizzie finally stirred, trying to sit up.

"Is she okay?" MG asked, embarrassingly frantically. "Does she need…" he trailed off, extending his hand.

"That isn't a bad idea," Josie said. "Here, Lizzie, take MG's hand. Magic will help you recover faster."

Lizzie nodded weakly as MG knelt and placed his hand in hers.

He felt the familiar sensation of the magic that kept him alive leaving his body in small waves. Josie had siphoned his magic in the past, and Lizzie siphoned from him fairly regularly, to the point that she'd even stopped asking for his permission, although now that he thought about it, MG wasn't sure if Lizzie had ever asked his permission before siphoning from him.

Which might seem presumptuous and invasive to someone else, but MG was glad that he was spared the mortifyingly eager response he would have given if she'd asked.

After a few minutes, Lizzie seemed to be feeling better. She was able to move easily and stand up, checking for herself to see that the scratch marks the gargoyle had left on her stomach were gone.

"I'm going to go take a shower and change into some comfy clothes," Lizzie announced.

"Okay, we'll be here," Josie told her.

Once she'd walked away, MG asked Josie, "How did you know that she was in trouble and you needed to come back? Dorian told me that you insisted you needed to see her when I was looking for you."

"You were looking for me?" Josie asked.

"Well, all three of you, really," MG admitted. "I figured if you or Lizzie voluntarily went anywhere with Hope, it had to be something major."

Josie chuckled.

"That's true. And moments before you showed up, Dad threw himself between her and the gargoyle when it tried to attack her, so needless to say, we aren't on good terms right now," Josie said. "It was a twin connection sort of thing. We can feel each other's pain. At first I thought it was a completely reasonable reaction to you and Dana, but then I realized it was Lizzie."

MG winced at the reminder of what he'd done, and the judgmental tone in which Josie mentioned it.

"Yeah, that was not my best decision," MG confessed.

"You think?" Josie raised her eyebrows. "You're such a good guy, MG, why are you always choosing the wrong girls? Penelope, and now Dana; I wish you would date a girl who is as nice as you are, someone who actually deserves you."

MG sighed.

"Well, like I told you, I'm just passing the time with girls who are available. The kind of girls you want me to be with, don't even look my way, trust me."

"And what about the girl you want to be with?" Josie questioned.

MG choked out a laugh.

"So far out of my league we aren't even playing the same game," he insisted. "She's like, a movie star, and I'm the guy who holds a fan in front of her on hot days, and on rare occasions she'll say thank you and actually get my name right, and it makes my whole year."

"Well," Josie started as she stood up. "All I can say is follow your heart, until your heart says it's had enough, and then you have to stop for the sake of your own sanity. Just keep being the kind, caring person that you are, and show her that you care, that she's important to you. I think that's all people really want, right? To feel special and important to the people they care about? But what do I know. There aren't a lot of people fully committed to Team Saltzman Twins lately, especially since Team Hope is an option."

"Hey, that is not fair, I am the captain of Team Saltzman Twins," MG laughed.

"Then stay away from Dana! You know how much Lizzie hates her!" Josie exclaimed.

Which Penelope had insisted was a good thing for him, but MG decided to take Josie's advice this time.

"Jo, you should know that Lizzie only punched her because she insulted you. She started the fight yesterday because she was standing up for you," MG said. "Which is probably why she felt so hurt when you sided with Hope over her today."

"Well, I won't be doing that again," Josie promised. "We needed to work together to defeat the gargoyle and save Lizzie, but I don't think I can be friends with someone who my own dad loves more than me."

"Hey, if you're discussing what you're getting me for my birthday, stop, I'm back!" Lizzie announced, now wearing a white hoodie, grey leggings, and slippers.

"Your birthday's coming up? I had completely forgotten," MG teased.

Lizzie pouted.

"Come on, you know I would never forget my favorite twins' birthday," MG said.

Before the twins could respond, a note floated towards them, informing them that there was an assembly in the Great Hall in ten minutes.

Lizzie and Josie claimed seats in the front and started talking and laughing together.

MG sat further back, not wanting to intrude, but as he listened to Alaric tell the student body about the gargoyle and the dragon, he found himself mulling over Josie's words, and decided that after the assembly was over, he would do something to show Lizzie how important she was to him, and how much he cared.

* * *

The next chapter, based on MG's storyline in the latest episode, will be uploaded as soon as I finish writing it. Thank you for your patience!

And I'm not sure if anyone will be interested, but I thought I would offer: if there are any scenes from the show, or chapters here, that you'd like me to write a chapter or a continuation/sequel for, please let me know and I will add it to my list of future chapters! Thanks!


	5. We Fit Together Right

Hi! So I ended up not liking what I was originally writing in response to the mid-season finale, so I decided to start over and write this (softer, simpler, more predictable version) instead.

Again, I'm sorry for the long wait.

Title for this part comes from Demi Lovato's song "Two Pieces" which I love and I think is perfect for Mizzie both in this update and in the show.

I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

"Have you seen MG? I didn't see him in class or at lunch, or anywhere else," Josie asked her twin while they unpacked their luggage in their room.

With the time difference, their flight home had landed at five that morning, and their father had insisted that they attend all of their classes that day, starting at eight. This was the first opportunity they had had to unpack and relax a little after their trip.

"No, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was avoiding me," Lizzie replied, pulling her curling iron out of her suitcase.

"Why would he be avoiding you?" Josie questioned.

"On our birthday, he was one of the many people I treated horribly," Lizzie confessed. "He made himself my date to our party when Rafael was late, but then when he showed up, I immediately ditched MG for Rafael. That sort of thing is a pretty harsh blow to a guy's ego."

Josie chuckled incredulously.

"I don't think it was his ego you hurt," she muttered.

"What?" Lizzie responded. "Anyway, Rafael told me that sleeping with me was a mistake and that he wanted nothing to do with me, so I guess I got what I deserved, but then we just left the country to visit Mom without talking to either of them, and I don't even know if he would accept my apology even if I said I was sorry."

"I'm sure he would," Josie reassured her. "He's a good guy. I can't see him holding this against you."

Lizzie nodded thoughtfully.

"Come on, I'll help you look for him."

He wasn't in his room, which was where Lizzie had decided was the most obvious place he would be, and therefore was the first place they should check.

"So he wasn't in class, or at lunch, or in his room, and he hasn't texted me or updated any of his social media accounts... Something weird is going on," Josie said.

"It's a good thing we're in his room then," Lizzie replied.

At Josie's confused look, Lizzie explained.

"We're surrounded by his stuff, which we can use to do a locator spell."

When the twins performed the spell, they weren't expecting to find MG in the basement, but after assuming the spell was wrong, trying again, and getting the same result, they made their way downstairs in search of their missing friend.

They were even more surprised to find him locked in a cell, with Penelope and Hope of all people sitting on the ground on the other side of the bars.

"What are you doing here?" Hope asked harshly, clearly directing the question at Lizzie.

"I could ask you the same thing," Lizzie retorted. "Did Dad make you hall monitor or something?"

"I'm here because MG is my friend," Hope shot back.

"Good one," Lizzie laughed. "You made a friend, sure thing."

"He's part of my Avengers squad," Hope continued.

"So, you make a friend and now you think you're a superhero?" Lizzie questioned. "Or did you think you were a superhero before, but now you've convinced someone to be your sidekick?"

"Who's there?" MG asked, sounding groggy.

"Josie and her evil twin," Penelope answered.

"MG, what happened? We've been looking for you all over, why are you in here?" Josie asked.

"You two have been looking for me?" MG confirmed.

"No, we are not doing this," Penelope insisted. "What part of 'Lizzie Saltzman is canceled' did you not understand?"

"I'm 'canceled?'" Lizzie repeated. "For what?"

"How about for being so selfish that I'm surprised you can see any of us right now, since we're all further away than your own nose?" Penelope responded. "You want everyone to constantly shower you with love and attention, and you don't care about what they want or need. It's just all about you, all the time, and why should anyone put up with being treated as badly as you treat everyone?"

Lizzie looked like she'd been slapped.

"But Hope, who has only talked to me when she needs something from me or she wants to pick a fight with me for the last ten years, gets a pass?" Lizzie raised her eyebrows.

"I saved your sister from being buried alive while you were having fun at your birthday party," Hope defended herself. "And if that isn't a metaphor for your relationship, I don't know what is. You act like I'm this angry, lonely, bitter person with no redeeming qualities, but I'm brave, I'm smart, I'm powerful, I'm determined, and your dad trusts me to protect the school against a whole menagerie of supernatural creatures, when he doesn't even trust you enough to let you know afterwards that I fought a dragon and I won."

"Stop!" Josie interjected. "Can someone just please tell me what happened and why MG is here?"

Josie stepped closer to the cell, prompting Penelope and Hope to scoot over to make room for her to sit next to them, facing inward so that she could see MG sitting against the back wall.

When Lizzie moved to follow her sister, Penelope and Hope both looked up at her appraisingly.

"I think we agree with Dr. Saltzman that Lizzie shouldn't know this information, because we don't think she's trustworthy and because we don't think that she can handle it," Hope declared. "We'll tell you after she leaves."

"I'm going to tell her whatever it is," Josie told them. "There's no point in you keeping it from her just to be mean."

"Tell her," MG spoke up from inside. "Lizzie and Josie should both get to know what they missed while they were away."

"But she's not part of our Avengers squad," Hope responded.

"And, as I keep having to remind you, she's canceled," Penelope added.

"Well, I'm not going to sit here and let you two be mean to her and use me to justify it," MG insisted.

Hope sighed.

"Dorian thinks that MG might be a Ripper," she announced flatly. "A Ripper is—"

"We know what a Ripper is," the twins interrupted.

"Why does Dorian think that?" Josie asked.

"Because on Remembrance Day Kaleb convinced him to drink from a human and MG ended up killing him," Penelope answered. "Dorian knocked him out with vervain before he went on a blood binge in the cemetery."

"Has he been down here since then?" Lizzie asked.

"Yes," Hope replied shortly.

"I'm sorry, MG," Josie said. "How are you doing?"

"As well as any vampire who can't handle drinking blood can be, I guess," he answered morosely. "Everyone else is just fine, but I turn into a murderous freak. It's like my brain doesn't work right or something."

"If only you knew someone who could relate to that," Lizzie murmured under her breath.

No one seemed to hear her comment.

"We should get going," Hope checked the time on her phone. "They're going to start serving dinner in a few minutes, and people will notice if all four of us are missing."

Hope was the first to say her goodbyes and leave, followed by Penelope. Josie lingered longer than they did, offering words of support and promises to help.

Then it was Lizzie's turn.

"I'm sorry about Hope and Penelope," MG told her. "I'll tell them, again, to be nicer to you."

Lizzie shrugged.

"It's okay, I'm used to it by now," she said. "They've both made clear they think I'm a horrible person, and I doubt anything you could say to them will change their minds, so you don't have to worry about it."

"If you say so," MG replied.

"Come on, Liz, we need to go!" Josie called out from down the hallway.

"I'll see you later, I guess," Lizzie offered before turning to follow her twin.

"Bye, Lizzie. Thanks for stopping by."

With that, MG retreated back into the far corner of the cell.

The next morning, Lizzie skipped her math class (it isn't like she's ever going to use geometry in real life) and went down to the basement to visit MG. On the way, she snuck into the kitchen and stole a blood bag from the refrigerator, knowing that he was only being fed just enough blood to keep him from desiccating and must be starving. She dragged her hands along the wall of the hallways as she passed, siphoning the magic that ran through them.

He was clearly surprised to see her.

"You're back!" he exclaimed.

"I'm back," Lizzie replied.

"Not that I'm not happy that you decided to visit me again, but why exactly did you decided to come down here again so soon?" he asked.

Lizzie whispered the spell to open the bars of the cell and walked inside.

"Lizzie, you shouldn't be in here," MG protested.

"Here, I brought you a present," Lizzie handed him the blood bag she'd brought.

MG gratefully gulped down the contents of the blood bag.

"Thank you, but you should still leave," MG repeated.

"Which is it, are you happy that I'm here or do you want me to leave?" Lizzie questioned forcefully.

"I am happy that you're here, I swear!" MG insisted. "But I'm stuck here so that I don't hurt anyone, and I don't want to hurt you just because you're nice enough to bring me blood and keep me company."

Lizzie sat down next to him.

"If you try to drink my blood, I will siphon the life out of you and run out of here," Lizzie threatened.

"Okay," MG relented with a sigh.

"So, I didn't get a chance to ask you yesterday; how was your mom?" MG asked.

"She's good. It was good to see her, I've missed her a lot," Lizzie answered.

"I can imagine, she's been gone for a while."

"Yeah, but what she's doing is important," Lizzie acknowledged. "She can't just run home all the time because her needy daughter misses her."

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes.

"So why were you trying to drink human blood anyway?" Lizzie broke the silence.

"There was this monster called the Necromancer, he was the one who brought your biological mother back to life," MG explained. "Your dad kept him in the cellar for days, trying to get some answers about why he had wanted to hurt your family so much that he did that, but he wasn't saying anything. Eventually, Hope decided to interrogate him herself, and she asked for my help to enter his subconscious. But he trapped her there, and she was crying and screaming but I couldn't get her out of there, and I just decided that I was sick of not being strong enough to help the people I care about. I felt horrible that Hope had suffered because I wasn't strong enough to help her."

"Of course it had to be because of Hope," Lizzie whispered under her breath.

In a normal tone of voice, one that she intended for him to hear, Lizzie said, "And your attempt to be Hope's knight in shining armor went horribly wrong, and now you're being held captive down here."

"Hope doesn't need or want a knight in shining armor," MG chuckled. "You know she's proud to see herself as the strongest, the bravest, the most powerful. She probably will never ask for my help again unless she needs someone compelled, but I just hated standing there, feeling helpless as I watched someone else in pain."

"Was Dad really that bad while we were gone?" Lizzie changed the subject.

"He and Hope got into quite a few shouting matches," MG answered. "She yelled at him over his drinking, he yelled at her for acting like an emotionless robot all the time. It was a collection of their greatest hits, but with the intensity turned way up. Hope played the 'you're not my father' card, your dad implied Hope killed her own parents. It was ugly."

Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"I don't think she even realizes what a hypocrite she's being," Lizzie complained. "She loves being special, being the headmaster's favorite—not just his favorite student but his favorite daughter—until that means that he has higher expectations for her than just any other student, and then she freaks out and demands he treat her like everyone else. Except she still wants to know all of the secrets, and come along on all of the missions for everything from recruiting werewolves to slaying dragons, and demand her own seat on the Honor Council to represent herself, she just doesn't want to face the consequences when she breaks the rules. And why does she think that she has the right to challenge my dad on anything, let alone something as personal as his coping mechanisms after watching his fiancée die for the second time? She's just so entitled, and why wouldn't she be, Dad lets her get away with murder—sometimes literally."

"Yeah, apparently it's been weird around here for the last few days since he's still mad at her over what happened with the Necromancer," MG commented.

"What happened with the Necromancer?" Lizzie asked.

"Your dad didn't tell you?"

"My dad doesn't tell me anything," Lizzie scoffed.

"The Necromancer trapped Hope inside his subconscious to stall her while he had one of the dead people he brought back steal the knife and magically transport it away from here and destroy it," MG told her.

"I don't mean to sound like I'm taking her side, or anything, but how exactly is that Hope's fault?" Lizzie asked.

"Your dad told her to stay away from him, because he uses a person's dead loved ones to manipulate them, so he was trying to protect her from the Necromancer bringing back her parents to torture her, but she went down and saw him anyway, and he ended up manipulating her just like your dad worried that he would," MG explained.

"Oh, so it was one of those times when Hope decided that she's strong enough to handle everything on her own and the rules don't apply to her, and then she ends up in over her head," Lizzie concluded.

"Yeah, pretty much," MG answered.

"But you two are friends now," Lizzie said. "She mentioned your Avengers squad."

"Yeah, I don't know why she insists on calling us that," MG responded. "She recruited Penelope and me to help her kill zombies and save Josie when she was buried alive on her birthday. So we're friends now, I guess."

"Great, you're best buddies with two people who hate my guts," Lizzie remarked

"Hey, I told you that I would talk to them, and I will," MG looked at Lizzie sincerely. "It isn't right for them to be as mean to you as they are, and then act like they're the good guys," MG shook his head. "Wait, that isn't what I meant. My problem is that they're deliberately hurtful to you, not that they're hypocrites. Though I'm not a fan of their hypocrisy either."

"Why? No one would blamed you if you joined their little anti fan club," Lizzie pointed out.

"What? Why?" MG asked.

"At my birthday party?" Lizzie reminded him. "You put so much effort into making sure I had fun, and you saved me from the humiliation of having my date stand me up, and I immediately ditch you without a second thought for a guy who was an hour late and who swore that he wanted to be a good guy and do the right thing, all while telling me that he wanted nothing to do with me."

"I'm sorry," MG offered.

"I'll survive," Lizzie waved off his concern. "And I'm sorry for abandoning you and generally being a selfish terror the entire day."

"You weren't a terror, and it was your birthday—the one day a year that's devoted entirely to you. You're allowed to be selfish," MG responded.

"But it isn't though," Lizzie disagreed. "I'm a twin; my birthday isn't devoted entirely to me. And I didn't even notice that my twin sister hadn't shown up to our birthday party until I needed her!"

"I didn't notice either," MG said. "And Josie was never upset with either of us for not noticing. It would have been great if we had noticed and saved her sooner, but we didn't, and we can't really do anything about it now."

Once again they lapsed into silence.

Throughout the entirety of their conversation, Lizzie and MG had been sitting side-by-side, without moving, or touching, or even looking at each other more than once or twice.

This time it was MG who broke the silence.

"I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about being able to relate to feeling like your brain doesn't work right. How…?" MG trailed off.

"How can I relate?" Lizzie filled in his unspoken question. "I have bipolar disorder. I thought you knew that."

MG shook his head.

"No, I meant, how do you act like you're normal, even though you feel like you're the farthest thing from it?"

"I'm not the right person to ask about healthy coping mechanisms, but the best thing to do is surround yourself with people who don't care that you aren't 'normal' and love you anyway," Lizzie said.

"My not being normal could kill people that I care about," MG stated.

"I once nearly sent a bread knife flying through my father's brain," Lizzie recalled matter-of-factly.

MG raised his eyebrows but didn't comment.

"All I'm saying is that I know what it's like to feel like you can't control your own mind," Lizzie said. "And I know what it's like to feel like no one understands what that feels like. I mean, Hope and Rafael and Landon are angry and damaged because of things that have happened to them, and Josie and Penelope have their own issues, but none of them knows what it's like to have been born with an illness that makes you feel like you're broken."

"But we do get it," MG responded. "Just like Hope and Rafael and Landon can relate to each other because they're all angry and damaged because of things that have happened to them, and Josie and Penelope have their own issues. We can understand each other and be there for each other, because we do know what it feels like, even if no one else does."

"Yeah," Lizzie nodded with a smile. "I think that would be good."

MG met her eyes with a warm look that seemed to convey more than just contented agreement.

"I hate to say this, but you should probably go," MG said. "Your dad comes by to check on me every morning, and he'll be here any minute, and I don't want you to get in trouble for being here when you're supposed to be in class."

"Like skipping one geometry class is going to kill me," Lizzie scoffed, but MG looked away and curled his hands into fists in reaction.

"MG, you didn't even try to hurt me the whole time I was down here," Lizzie reminded him. "I will talk to my dad and convince him to let you out of here, okay? It isn't fair for him to keep you here because he's afraid you might someday lose control and hurt someone."

"You would do that for me?" MG asked.

"I will, I promise," Lizzie stood up, collected the now empty blood bag, and walked over to the bars of the cell.

"Wait, Lizzie," MG called out.

"Yeah?" she stopped and turned to face him.

"It wasn't for Hope, it was for you," he said.

"What are you talking about, what was for me?" Lizzie asked.

"Earlier, you asked me why I decided to drink human blood, and I told you it was after I couldn't help Hope escape from the Necromancer. Kaleb had told me that I was weak because I didn't drink human blood, but I didn't really understand how weak I was until I was in that situation where I wasn't strong enough to help a friend who was in trouble," MG paused to take a breath. "You assumed that I did it because I wanted to be able to save Hope, because I wanted to be her knight in shining armor, but that wasn't it at all, not only because Hope would hate both of us for even suggesting that she needs one. I did it because if it had been you in that situation where you needed me and I wasn't strong enough to save you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Lizzie was stunned, her mouth hanging open slightly and her blue eyes wide.

"You… For me?" she managed to stammer.

"I didn't know that it would get so out of control, but yeah, it was for you."

Neither was completely sure who moved first, but in a flash of vampire speed, they were inches apart. MG's hands rested on the small of Lizzie's back, while she placed one of her hands on his shoulder and the other on the side of his face.

"Thank you," Lizzie whispered.

And then she kissed him.

Surprised, it took MG a second to react, but then he responded eagerly, moving one of his hands up to tangle in Lizzie's long blonde hair.

When Lizzie pulled away, needing to breathe, she bit her lip and looked away shyly.

"I don't want you to think that I was expecting… that," MG said awkwardly. "I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything just because I did this crazy thing that ended up backfiring because I wanted to be able to protect you."

"I know," Lizzie replied, looking up at him with a vulnerable softness in her eyes that he'd never seen there before. "I kissed you because I wanted to, not because I thought I had to."

"Okay," MG responded. "Well as long as we're on the same page there."

Lizzie giggled.

MG watched, uncertain of what she was doing, while she quickly ran her hand along the base of her neck and around each of her wrists.

"Here," she pulled a bracelet off of her right wrist and fastened it around MG's left wrist.

MG looked down to see that she'd given him her favorite bracelet: a circle of lavender pink enamel roses covering a gold bangle that opened and closed on a hinge.

When MG looked back up at Lizzie, she must have seen his confusion in his eyes, because she quickly explained.

"In medieval times, when a knight would participate in a joust, he would carry something that belonged to the lady he had pledged himself to, to show everyone who he was fighting for and that he had earned her favor."

"So, then you're saying that I've earned your favor," MG inferred.

Lizzie nodded.

"And when you get out of here we'll see if you can't earn something else," she said suggestively, then kissed him again before he could offer a response.

"You should go," MG managed when broke off the kiss.

"So eager to see the back of me," Lizzie teased. "Fine. I'll see you soon."

With that, she walked out of the cell, locking the gate behind her.

MG listened as her footsteps retreated, until she'd climbed the stairs and reached the main level of the school.

He sank back down into a sitting position on the ground.

She was worth it, he smiled to himself, and together they could get through anything.


	6. She Will Be Loved

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry for not updating in a while, I've been working on other writing projects, and honestly, the complete and utter lack of any interaction between Lizzie and MG has not exactly been inspiring my creativity. The Miss Mystic Falls episode last week, however, did make me want to write, and by 'make me want to write,' I mean, I liked some things and really wanted to change others to make them more Lizzie and Mizzie friendly. I made some pretty extensive changes (you'll see) and I really hope you like them!

I wanted to have this posted a few days ago, but it kept getting longer and longer (this update is over twice as long as the next longest chapter).

I will slowly but surely write and post Mizzie AU versions of episodes nine, ten, twelve, and thirteen, at least, plus the as-yet-unaired season finale if necessary. As always, if anyone has any requests, please feel free to share them with me!

Also, this chapter includes Klaroline references, because I love Klaroline and there were significant Klaroline mentions in the episode.

The title for this one comes from the name of the Maroon 5 song.

Happy reading!

* * *

MG was focusing all of his attention, his sight, and his hearing on Lizzie as she stood at the podium, holding her clipboard and announcing their assigned tasks for the school's preparations for the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant.

With everything that had been going on lately, MG, like Alaric, had forgotten all about the pageant, but he wasn't surprised that Lizzie hadn't—there was little, if anything, that Lizzie wanted more than to follow in her beloved mother's footsteps and be crowned Miss Mystic Falls.

And although MG's interest in the pageant was limited to rooting for Lizzie to achieve her lifelong dream, anything was better than having to listen to classmates whisper about him and what he'd done to Landon.

He knew that it was horrible, and he hated that he'd lost control, but these gossips didn't know the whole story. They didn't know about his father calling him a demon, standing there and looking into his eyes, unable to recognize his own son standing in front of him through the harsh glare of his intolerance.

If he'd never gone home to see his parents, he might not have been in such a tenuous emotional state, and if it hadn't been for Landon himself, he never would have gone home. It was bad enough being stuck at school while Kaleb, Josie, Lizzie, and Hope went with Dr. Saltzman on some mission that he hadn't been invited on, with only Rafael—who he'd wanted to punch constantly since Lizzie and Josie's birthday—and Landon—who he'd wanted to punch more and more with every time he opened his mouth to try to force his perspective on to MG—for company.

MG didn't blame Landon for what happened, because of course there was no way he could have known how his father would react to MG's confession that he was a vampire. But he shouldn't have persisted so stubbornly when MG and Rafael had both expressed uncertainty about seeing him after hearing from MG's mom that he wouldn't understand or accept his son being a vampire.

MG still didn't fully remember all of the events of that night. He remembered crying that he didn't have anything left to fight for, then punching Landon, and then his overwhelming craving for blood took over and left the rest of his memories hazy and distorted. He remembered having a werewolf bite, though he had no memory of Rafael biting him. He remembered being cured, but he had no memory of drinking Hope's blood. Everything after that was a little more clear, with the image of Landon's body bursting into flames and then coming back to life distinctly burned into mind.

Landon, Rafael, and Hope were all keeping their distance from him, with Landon never venturing far from Hope and Rafael nowhere to be seen. He didn't blame them for not wanting to get to close to him after the traumatic events of that night, though their reactions had struck him as odd, to say the least: Hope had spent more time with Lizzie in the past few days than she had in the five years preceding them, and Rafael seemed more angry at him than Landon, who was acting more nonchalant about the whole thing than either of the other two.

Considering that only Dr. Saltzman, Kaleb, Hope, Landon, Rafael, and himself had been present that night, and MG knew that Alaric and Kaleb hadn't said anything about what happened, and neither had he, he didn't know how the entire student body seemed to know all of the details. Hope wasn't a gossip, seeing herself as above such things, and while Landon was happy to tell anyone who would listen (and then once he'd told those two, anyone who wouldn't listen) about his newfound phoenix identity, he wasn't sharing how he'd found out about it, leaving Rafael as the only culprit.

MG understood that Rafael was angry, and he understood he wanted to hold MG accountable for his actions, but spreading the word had created a toxic environment for MG to muddle through on top of the guilt and self-loathing he already felt.

At the podium, Lizzie was wrapping up her long list of assignments, which hardly anyone, save for MG, was actually listening to.

That seemed backwards—MG had never received more attention than Lizzie, and Lizzie loved being the center of attention while MG felt uncomfortable with all eyes on him.

"Thank you all in advance for your help," Lizzie smiled brightly.

MG didn't know if Lizzie knew what he'd done. Josie's reaction had been similar to her father's: a quiet concern that was somehow judgmental, something that until now, he'd always associated with interventions on reality TV. They'd both offered to listen if he needed someone to talk to, then suggested that he talk to Emma almost immediately after, making MG question the sincerity of their support.

But Lizzie hadn't said anything. She hadn't joined in with the whisperers, but she hadn't defended him either. Not that he expected her to. Their classmates called Lizzie crazy and dramatic and intense enough without adding whatever they would say about her if she spoke up on behalf of the Ripper who killed the school's one and only phoenix and the one and only tribrid's boyfriend.

Students started filing out of the hall to start fulfilling their task of hiding all things supernatural from any human visitors who were coming to participate in or watch the pageant, except for those who had been designated to help move the furniture out of the way so that Lizzie could get started setting up for the pageant. And by set up, he meant boss other people around while she held her clipboard and 'supervised.'

The students would all do as Lizzie said, of course. Regardless of how they felt about Lizzie personally, she was still the headmaster's daughter.

Fortunately for him, MG had been assigned to the welcoming committee: tasked with greeting visitors, answering their questions about the school or the pageant, giving tours that would carefully avoid any evidence of who the school was really for that hadn't been hidden yet.

MG liked to think that Lizzie had purposely chosen that role for him, knowing that he would prefer it to cleaning or decorating.

So, determined to give his assigned job all of the effort it deserved, MG followed the crowd into the hall and then walked outside, saddened by the fact that he knew that the strangers he spoke to today would be nicer to him than most of the people who actually knew him.

{ }

So far, set up was going according to the schedule.

Students had just finished clearing the room of all of its furniture, and Lizzie had just gone over the floor plan for the event with all of her helpers, showing them where the dance floor was going to be, where the sound system and lights needed to go, offering them each a copy of the floral chart.

Lizzie was pleased with their progress so far and excited about the pageant, daydreaming about the judges offering her the Miss Mystic Falls sash and crown as her fellow students worked.

Then Hope walked into the hall like she was on a mission.

She made a beeline for Lizzie and requested another task, something more strenuous, since with so many strangers in the school for the pageant, she couldn't turn into her wolf form to burn off excess energy and stress.

"Does this have anything to do with the return of Roman Sienna?" Lizzie asked.

Two years earlier, Lizzie had witnessed Hope and Roman's interactions with a mix of envy and secondhand embarrassment. It had been so awkward, especially since now Hope referred to Roman as her ex-boyfriend even though they'd never actually been in a real relationship, but it was also the beginning of every crush-worthy guy at the Salvatore School having his own crush on Hope. Then Hope's mom had died because of Roman's mother's plan to act on her hatred of hybrids and werewolves, assisted by a manipulated Roman, who she'd brainwashed with her own beliefs, and a devastated Hope, whose actions had unknowingly aided Greta in her mission. Alaric hiring Roman might have been the only time when he did something that he knew would hurt Hope.

Lizzie compared the situation to her own with Rafael: they might not have officially been in a relationship, but it was still awkward. After making a show of not holding a grudge when she and Josie had returned from visiting their mother, she'd avoided him, and he'd avoided her.

Before Lizzie could offer any sympathy or advice, she saw the judges enter the hall and rushed over to make sure that she would be the first contestant to speak to them.

"Welcome, welcome," Lizzie eagerly greeted the first two judges, bending over backwards to ensure that she made a good impression on them, offering tea and condolences on recently deceased pets.

Then the third judge walked up to them, wearing a button with Dana's face on it, who introduced herself as Vera Lilien, Dana's mom.

"Dana told me so much about you, before she passed away," Mrs. Lilien told Lizzie.

"All good things, I hope?" Lizzie stammered hopefully, knowing even before Mrs. Lilien responded that the answer would be negative.

Dana would have told her mother only awful things about Lizzie: that she was crazy, that she was uptight and obnoxious, and a whole host of other things that probably weren't even true, but that Mrs. Lilien would believe because they came from Dana.

This was a nightmare. Lizzie would never win Miss Mystic Falls now, Dana's mom would never choose her as the winner, and she would tell all of the other judges everything Dana had said, turning them against her as well.

Everything she'd spent her whole life wanting, and researching, and working for, all gone, just like that.

There was only one thing she could do.

As Lizzie whirled around in a huff, trying to locate the people she needed to talk to, she bumped into someone else.

"What are you doing just standing there, Kaleb? There's a whole list of tasks that need to be completed before the pageant starts! If you've finished one, there are plenty more for you to do. No one should be doing nothing!" Lizzie scolded.

"Whatever, Barbie," Kaleb rolled his eyes.

Lizzie marched across the room towards Josie, Penelope, and Hope.

"Lizzie, what's wrong?" Josie asked.

"I need to talk to all of you, right now."

{ }

"I'm officially withdrawing from Miss Mystic Falls, effective immediately," Lizzie announced as soon as she shut the doors behind them.

Penelope and Hope stood on either side of Josie, all of them leaning against a table, while Lizzie stood facing them, keeping an eye on the door behind them.

"What? No, you can't!" Josie insisted, just as Hope asked, "Why?"

"One of the judges is Dana's mom, who just confirmed that Dana told her all sorts of awful things about me! Plus, she's the town pharmacist; she knows about my medication and why I need it. There's no way I can win now!" Lizzie exclaimed.

"Look, I already knew that you were a selfish coward who would rather quit that risk losing, and I really don't care whether you're a contestant or not, so why am I here?" Penelope questioned.

"I thought you might want to be part of the group," Lizzie offered feebly.

"Not part of any group that includes you," Penelope retorted.

"Lizzie, you can't quit," Josie implored. "Remember, Mom told us she didn't think she was going to win either, and she did. It's all going to work out the way it's supposed to, okay? But you can't give up before the competition has even started."

"I wouldn't be caught dead within a hundred yards of a beauty pageant, but Josie's right. Quitters never win," Hope said. "And I don't know your mom as well as you two do, but I think she would be more disappointed if you quit than if you lost."

Lizzie's face fell as she processed Hope's words.

"I don't want to disappoint her. Ever," Lizzie insisted quietly and solemnly. "I've always wanted to be exactly like Mom. People have said that I'm a lot like her, and sometimes it feels like that's the only good thing about me. You know, Josie's the good twin, the smart one, the nice one, the one who doesn't lose control, but I'm the one who's like Mom, so I at least have that going for me. I have all of these… issues, and I tell myself that if I can just be more like Mom, and do exactly what she would do, then maybe I can get through it and be okay."

Even Penelope didn't have a flippant response to Lizzie's vulnerable confession.

"You have to tell the judges that, in your interview," Josie told her.

"Yeah, right, I might as well say, 'I'm a nut case, but pick me anyway because I wish I was like my mom who won Miss Mystic when she was my age,'" Lizzie scoffed.

"I think what you said was beautiful," Hope offered. "It showed vulnerability and humility and self-awareness, and those sound like things the judges would be looking for. And I feel similarly about my own mom. Ever since I was little, I would ask myself what my mom would do before making a decision. I would tell her, 'I just wanted to be brave like you,' because I did. After she and my dad died, that's what helped me cope: I would tell myself, 'Mom would be strong enough to get through this,' and that's what kept me going."

Lizzie's and Hope's eyes met, a rare moment of understanding, empathy, and compassion passing between them.

"Okay, it just got really angsty in here, and I am not here for it," Penelope declared. "First of all, Josie and Hope are right, quitting because you think you might lose is pathetic. Second of all, Dana's mom is not allowed to discriminate against you because of your illness, that's illegal, and I don't want you think that I like you because I'm saying this, but if there's any evidence to suggest that her prejudice against you because of your illness is why you didn't win, I will personally report her to the American Medical Association because that's a direct violation of their code of conduct, which would probably cause her to lose her job. Third of all, it's just a pageant, I keep saying that they're archaic and misogynistic, and your insistence that your value as a person is dependent upon winning the pageant is exactly what the men who created these meat markets want you to think. You're still going to be a younger clone of Caroline Forbes whether you win or not. The crown and the sash change nothing."

Lizzie sat quietly, deep in thought, for a few minutes, while the other girls watched in silent anticipation.

"Josie, I know that we picked out our dresses together, but now I think I want us to wear Mom's dresses, to really play up the 'our mom was Miss Mystic Falls' angle, and to really honor why it's so important to us to be a part of the competition," Lizzie proposed. "We can wear the new ones we bought to prom, or something."

"I would love that!" Josie agreed eagerly. "Wait… does that mean you aren't dropping out of the pageant?"

"Yes, I am officially un-withdrawing from Miss Mystic Falls, effectively immediately," Lizzie announced with a wide, excited smile.

Then her smile vanished.

"I still need to find an escort," Lizzie lamented.

"If you can't find anyone, you can borrow Landon," Hope offered.

"No offense, Hope, but I think I'd rather walk in alone than with your wannabe Jonas Brother," Lizzie remarked.

"Roman's around, too," Hope suggested.

"I don't understand how you can even look at him, let alone act like he hasn't done anything wrong. He was part of a plot to kill your mother, and you, Hope. I know that you're fully committed to your 'emotions are for the weak, I'm too strong to need to grieve' life philosophy, which is just insane to me, so I am going to feel angry and betrayed and vengeful towards him on your behalf. No, he cannot be my escort," Lizzie declared.

Josie smiled.

"I have an idea," she started. "Penelope has insisted on being my escort, even though I told her multiple times that I already had an escort, so that means MG is available to be your escort. We'll just have to go let him know that he's swapping Saltzman sisters."

Josie and Hope exchanged knowing looks, complete with secretive half-smiles and raised eyebrows, but Penelope looked reluctant.

"Are you sure you want to do that to him?" Penelope asked Josie. "You weren't the one who had to give him a pep talk after the horrible way she treated him at your birthday party."

Lizzie winced.

"Was I really that awful?"

"The guy spent hours working to make sure that you, and Josie, had the perfect sweet 16, and not only did you never thank him, you also unapologetically kicked him to the curb in favor of a guy who only agreed to be your date after taking advantage of your obvious crush on him to get you to do his bidding once you were on the honor council that you didn't actually end up winning a seat on, dumped you on your birthday, and then told the entire school while he was slug-drunk that he's had a crush on Hope since that same night. Yes, you were really that awful," Penelope listed.

Lizzie focused her attention back on Josie.

"Maybe Penelope's right," Lizzie said. "I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to help the ungrateful train wreck who just happens to be his friend's twin. I don't want to hurt him—again—or anyone else."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to be your escort," Josie insisted.

"Jo…"

"Come on, let's go talk to him," Josie tugged on Lizzie's arm. "You won't know unless you ask. And considering how little time we have before the pageant, your options are pretty limited. You don't want Landon or Roman to be your escort, Rafael is obviously not in the running, Kaleb would never participate in a pageant, and while I know you would probably choose Pedro if you could, he's too young. Your choices are either MG or a random you don't know well and don't necessarily like, or you have to reconsider Landon."

"Fine, we'll go talk to him," Lizzie relented. "The first rehearsal starts at three, so we'll need to find him quickly, and I guess we'll see you guys there?"

"See you in a little while, Josie," Penelope said, making her exit from the room.

"I'll be there, with Landon, in case you need him," Hope told them before following Penelope.

"Wait, Josie," Lizzie said. "Don't trip."

Josie looked confused.

"Don't trip," Lizzie repeated earnestly. "Don't fall down the stairs, or mess up your interview, or anything else I asked you to do before. If I win this, I want to know that I earned it."

"Are you sure?"

"You guys were right earlier when you were talking about Mom being more disappointed if I quit than if I lost, and I think the same principle applies to scheming and cheating, too," Lizzie explained.

"I think you're right," Josie agreed.

"Good. Then it's settled," Lizzie nodded firmly. "See? Everything is working out just fine."

"On that note, let's go find you an escort," Josie encouraged with a smile, offering Lizzie her hand, which Lizzie hesitantly took and allowed her sister to lead her out the door.

{ }

"MG!" a familiar voice called out as MG led Nia through the common room again.

He had been fastidiously avoiding Lizzie and her clipboard all day, even though he knew that blowing off the headmaster's daughter was not a good way to get back in his good graces after what he'd done, not because he didn't want to help her, but because he knew that he would humiliate himself with how eagerly he would agree to whatever it was she asked of him.

He'd already agreed to be her sister's escort so that he would get to see her at the pageant and maybe get the chance to tell her she looked beautiful all dressed up and congratulate her when she won.

Because there was no doubt in MG's mind that Lizzie would be the winner.

There was nothing that could stop the force of nature that was Elizabeth Saltzman when she had her heart set on something, and Lizzie had had her heart set on winning Miss Mystic Falls like her mom for at least the last decade.

Her fervent desire to win had made her even more intense and controlling than usual: never going anywhere without her trusty clipboard, spending days before set-up even started planning every last detail of the pageant, waking up early and staying up late to rehearse the dance or her answers to the interview questions, looking like she was on the verge of tears at least half the time.

"Great, someone you can introduce me to," Nia said.

"I don't know…" MG hedged as Lizzie and Josie approached them.

"Sorry, to interrupt," Josie said.

"No, it's cool," MG replied. "Nia, this is Lizzie and Josie Saltzman. Lizzie, Josie, this is Nia, she's here for the pageant."

"Welcome to the Salvatore School," Lizzie smiled brightly, but it looked fake to MG. "Are you participating in the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant?"

"No, I'm here for a friend," Nia answered.

"That's great! Support from family and friends is such an important part of the competition!" Lizzie kept smiling as if her face had gotten stuck that way. "I'm a contestant and I'm planning the pageant. Our mother was Miss Mystic Falls, and she planned the pageant after she won, and it just means the world to me to have the opportunity to follow in her footsteps like this."

"I'm not one of the judges, so you can talk to me like a normal person," Nia offered condescendingly, though Lizzie was apparently too high-strung and stressed out to pick up on her sarcasm.

MG had to stifle a laugh.

"What's up, Liz?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation back to whatever reason the twins had sought him out.

"Liz was my grandmother's name," Lizzie responded solemnly. "She was Mystic Falls' beloved sheriff, but she tragically died of cancer the year before I was born, so I never got to meet her. I can only hope that she's watching over me from wherever she is now, and that I'm making her proud."

"Wow, okay, she's crazy," Nia declared.

"Don't call her that," MG scolded forcefully before Lizzie could even think of a response over the sound of her blood roaring in her ears the way it always did when someone used that word to describe her.

"Gee, sorry, relax, I didn't mean to offend anyone," Nia rapidly tried to backtrack. "I'm going to go, but thanks for the tour."

None of them said anything as she walked away.

"Thank you for sticking up for me," Lizzie told MG after a moment.

"Of course, I'm sorry she said that about you," MG replied.

"It wasn't the first time someone's said that about me, and I'm sure it won't be the last," Lizzie sighed. "Plus, she didn't know that we would react that way."

"That isn't the point," MG insisted gently.

"Lizzie," Josie interrupted, taking both Lizzie and MG aback, as she'd been so quiet that they'd both sort of forgotten that she was there. "If we could get to the point?"

"Oh, right, you were coming to talk to me about something? Do you need me to help with something for the pageant?" MG asked.

"Yes," Lizzie confirmed. "Sort of. Not exactly."

"Okay…?"

"So, we came over here to tell you that Penelope has declared herself Josie's escort to Miss Mystic Falls," Lizzie said.

Well, that wasn't the end of the world, MG told himself. He could still go to the pageant and tell anyone who asked that he was there to support his friends, whom he would neither confirm nor deny included Lizzie.

"Yeah, Penelope told me something about that. So you just came over here to tell me that I'm off the hook?" MG questioned. "I feel like you could have sent a text for that. Aren't you too busy to waste your time tracking me down?"

"See, that's where the 'not exactly' part comes in," Lizzie continued. "We—well, more like I, actually—I was hoping that you would be willing to do a little date swap and be my escort instead? It's okay if you don't want to, I totally understand if you were planning to use your newfound freedom from being Josie's escort to enjoy a Miss Mystic Falls Pageant and Saltzman twins free day. Hope has already offered to let me borrow Landon if I can't find anyone else and need him to be my escort, but please, please don't make me need Landon."

MG smiled at Lizzie's rambling. He wondered why she seemed nervous about asking him to be her escort for the pageant.

There was no reason for her to be nervous. MG was thrilled at this turn of events, which was the best outcome he hadn't even let himself hope for. He'd been a little disappointed when she'd told him that Josie didn't need him to be her escort anymore, thinking that he'd lost his chance to spend any time with Lizzie during the pageant, but being Lizzie's escort meant that he would get to spend most of the evening with her.

"Of course, I would be happy to be your escort," MG told Lizzie.

"Oh, that's great, thank you so much," Lizzie breathed. "I don't have time to come up with any good insults for Landon, I would have been miserable with him."

"Well, I'm glad I could save you from misery," MG chuckled.

"You really are, you're a lifesaver," Lizzie proclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck. MG gingerly raised her arms to encircle her waist, savoring this moment with her in his arms.

"Okay," Lizzie pulled away, back to her nearly frantic state. "Dance rehearsal starts at three, so we're going to go change and meet you there."

"What's wrong with what you're wearing?" MG wondered.

"You have to practice the dance in the shoes you're going to be wearing when you do it for real, otherwise you'll fall over because you haven't mastered the choreography while wearing heels," Lizzie informed him. "You aren't wearing heels to the pageant, so what you're wearing is fine."

"Okay?"

But Lizzie and Josie were already walking quickly in the direction of their room, and since the Great Hall was in the same direction, MG followed after them.

As they turned the corner, he heard Lizzie exclaim, "Oh, hi, Mrs. Greasley!"

MG rushed into the hallway, and sure enough, his mother was standing there, looking at Lizzie in a way that could, at best, be described as appraising.

"Mom?" MG called out.

{ }

"Milton," his mother greeted. "And good afternoon, Miss Saltzman."

Lizzie grinned.

"I know that trick," she said. "You don't remember which twin I am, so you call me 'Miss Saltzman' and wait for me to tell you to call me Lizzie or Josie. Nice try, but I'm not falling for it again after dozens of people have already played that one."

Mrs. Greasley looked Lizzie up and down.

"You're Lizzie," she stated.

"Yes!" Lizzie smiled and clapped her hands together. "How did you know?"

"You're exactly how my son described you," Veronica answered.

Lizzie turned to face MG as Josie turned away to try to hide her laughter.

"What have you told your mother about me, MG?" Lizzie demanded.

"All good things, I promise," MG told her.

And it was true.

The first time he'd spoken to his mother after he'd started at the school, she'd asked him how he was settling in and if he'd made any friends, and he'd mentioned both of the twins, describing Josie as kind, caring, and friendly; and calling Lizzie stunning and vivacious and a whole collection of SAT words that were so far removed from his usual manner of speaking that they must have stuck in his mother's memory.

"If only I could say the same thing about what Dana told her mom about me," Lizzie lamented quietly.

"Milton, we really need to talk about what happened, and maybe consider the possibility that maybe this school isn't the right place for you," Veronica forged ahead.

"What?! No!" MG insisted.

"And where would be better, public school?" Lizzie cut in scathingly. "There's no other school in the world that's better prepared to help supernatural students than we are."

"Lizzie, this really isn't any of our business," Josie murmured.

"This is the best place for me, I know it," MG insisted. "I belong here. People understand and accept me here, and they help me be the best version of myself that I can be. They don't write me off after one mistake, they do all they can to help me fix it and learn from it so that I don't make the same mistake again. I have good friends here, who have been more supportive than you and Dad have been since I was turned. The reason I was so upset that night was because Dad had called me a demon and told me to get away from him when he found out I was a vampire, as if he didn't even recognize his own son anymore. No one here would ever do that. I know that it sounds cheesy, but this school really is a family, and you can't blame me for finding a new family after my real one abandoned me."

All four of them fell into a stunned silence as MG finished speaking. His mother looked like he'd slapped her, Josie looked disbelieving, and Lizzie looked like she was about to cry.

"Milton," Mrs. Greasley started in a shaky voice, then changed her mind and decided not to continue speaking.

"Look, Mrs. Greasley," Lizzie spoke up. "I get that you've had unpleasant experiences with the supernatural. My father has, too, that's why he and my mom founded this school, to teach us how to control our powers and use them for good, so that we don't hurt anyone. But we don't expect students to learn those lessons overnight and never slip up. If you really think that taking MG away from this school is going to help him control his cravings for blood, then I'm sorry to tell you that you're wrong. He's a vampire, and vampires need to drink blood to survive. That will be true no matter where he goes. He needs the support that this school can give him to learn how to drink the blood he needs without hurting anyone in the process."

Mrs. Greasley just gaped at Lizzie for a moment.

"Well, I appreciate your input, Lizzie," she said eventually. "I'm just going to step outside to get some air, if you'll excuse me."

"Lizzie, you really need to stop sticking your nose in everyone's business," Josie scolded as soon as Veronica walked away.

"I was sticking up for a friend," Lizzie retorted. "And it isn't like you excused yourself to give them some privacy either."

"I tried to get you to leave but you wouldn't!" Josie insisted. "Whatever, it's done. We need to change for rehearsal."

As the twins turned to leave, MG called Lizzie's name to get her attention.

"Thanks, for sticking up for me with my mom," he told her.

"Of course," Lizzie smiled. "You did the same thing for me. And like you said, this school is like a family."

{ }

By the time Lizzie and Josie rushed to their room to change and then ran back to the Great Hall, they were nearly late for rehearsal. They weren't the last contestants to arrive, but Lizzie could still feel Mrs. Lilien's judgmental eyes following her.

Penelope, Hope, and Landon were already there; Hope and Landon wearing their school uniforms and Penelope wearing a similar outfit to the red wrap top, white lace-trimmed camisole, grey dance skirt, black leggings, and gold heels that Lizzie was wearing, and the white off the shoulder top, red tank top, black dance skirt, black leggings and black heels that Josie was wearing.

MG raced through a different set of doors seconds after Lizzie and Josie made their way inside the room, heading in the direction of where Penelope, Hope, and Landon were gathered.

"MG is here, does that mean you don't need to borrow Landon?" Hope confirmed.

"No, I don't, so you're free to lurk in the corner with your Ariel, Prince Eric," Lizzie told them.

"Do I get any say in any of this?" Landon questioned.

"No," Lizzie and Hope answered in unison.

"I'm so sorry I'm almost late," MG said as he joined them.

"You weren't actually late, which would have hurt my chances of winning, so I can forgive you for being almost late," Lizzie told him.

"Is there anything I can do to help while you're rehearsing?" Hope offered.

"If you could place the spotlight and make sure all of the balloons get blown up, that would be fantastic," Lizzie replied. "I know that Dad ordered a helium tank, so it should be easy, just don't let any werewolf buffoons abuse it."

"My mother was the Alpha of our werewolf pack, I can keep these puppies in line," Hope responded. "Just let me carry the clipboard so I look important."

"Fine," Lizzie sighed, reluctantly handing it over.

Being friends with Hope still sometimes felt a little strange to Lizzie, and though she wasn't quite used to it yet, the change had come at the perfect time: now Lizzie could invest all the time and energy she used to spend hating Hope in to Miss Mystic Falls.

A moment later, Dana's mom called all of the participants and their escorts to gather in the center of the room to start the dance rehearsal.

Lizzie and Josie stood next to each other at the foot of the stairs, the respective escorts standing across from them.

When Mrs. Lilien instructed them to honor their partner, Lizzie dropped into a perfect, practiced curtsey, while Josie gave a careful bow, MG obligingly bent at the waist, and Penelope leaned forward as she amusedly inclined her head.

Each of their first actions would be representative of their efforts throughout the rehearsal. Lizzie executed each move confidently and gracefully, Josie's movements were textbook-perfect but self-conscious, MG was making a concerted effort and ended up trying too hard, and Penelope acted blasé about the whole thing.

It was only when Dana's mom told them to flirt with their eyes and Penelope wiggled her eyebrows like a cartoon villain and MG went cross-eyed, causing Josie to giggle, that Lizzie became frustrated with their antics.

"Will you two please take this seriously?!" she hissed. "Miss Mystic Falls may not be important to you, but it's important to me."

MG immediately sobered in response, while Penelope rolled her eyes.

As they reached the part of the dance that was slightly more complicated than just circling each other with their hands raised, MG floundered a little as he practiced the steps, an endearing look of concentration on his face as he tried to match Lizzie's impeccable footwork, his hand never straying from its respectable position on her waist.

"Is it going to mess you up if I talk to you?" Lizzie asked quietly.

"I'm a vampire, I should be able to handle it," MG replied.

"I don't understand why you're having so much trouble with this, I know that you're an incredibly talented dancer," Lizzie complimented.

"That's different. Pulling out backflips and moving to the rhythm of the music is one thing, but this is so exact, and there's so much pressure to get it perfect! I can't mess this up and risk you losing when you've wanted this for so long and worked so hard!"

Lizzie looked at him curiously for a moment, then looked away with a faint blush staining her cheeks.

"Well, the competition isn't taking place in a silent, empty room, so you might want to get used to having some background noise," Lizzie commented.

"Yeah, but I can tune that out, I want to actually listen to you when you're talking to me," MG countered.

"That's nice of you. Most people say I talk too much and tune me out," Lizzie said.

"So what did you want to talk about?" MG asked, finally looking up at her instead of at his feet, knowing that she was barely restraining herself from scolding him for it.

"While I would love to grill you about what you told your mom about me, I can accept that this is not the time or place," Lizzie remarked. "I actually wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"It was pointed out to me that I was my usual self-centered self on my birthday, and that you were the one who was forced to bear the brunt of my ungrateful selfishness," Lizzie started. "So I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for taking you for granted when you were so generous to work so hard to make sure that my sister and I had the perfect sweet 16, and for stepping in when my date abandoned me so that I wouldn't look like a pathetic loser on my birthday. I really appreciate how kind you are to me, and how I can always count on you to be there for me, even though being my friend means having to accompany me on the emotional rollercoaster through a pit of lava that is my life, and I don't tell you that enough. I mean, you once again agreed to be my escort even though last time it went so badly that you needed a pep talk from Penelope of all people."

"For the record, I wasn't actually going to duel him," MG said.

"What?"

"Nothing," MG quickly responded.

It took a few more minutes of concentration and practice, but soon MG had the dance down nearly as well as Lizzie did, and they were dancing circles around all of the other competitors, including Josie and Penelope, who hadn't been giving the dance their full attention as they argued about the letter Penelope had written and Josie's tendency to prioritize Lizzie's feelings over her own.

As soon as rehearsal was over, Lizzie raced over to retrieve her clipboard from Hope and reclaim her rightful place at the top of the party planning pyramid.

Lizzie moved so that she was facing the room and could survey the work currently in progress. MG and Josie stood on either side of her, while Hope, Landon, and Penelope faced them.

"The spotlight and the balloons are ready," Hope reported.

"Thanks," Lizzie replied. "Can I get a status report on the sound system please?" she called out.

"Test, test," one of the vampire volunteer's voice came over the speakers.

"Excellent, thank you!" Lizzie responded.

She looked down to consult the check list on her clipboard.

"We still need to hang the twinkle lights from the bannisters of the staircase," Lizzie informed everyone. "Why have the lights not been hung yet?"

"Will you relax?" Penelope demanded exasperatedly.

A few of the younger students picked up some of the strings of lights and started wrapping them around the handrails.

"Not so loose!" Lizzie shouted to them. "We don't want anyone to trip over them when they're walking down the stairs, we're already all wearing long dresses and high heels!"

The students obediently wrapped the lights more securely around the bannister.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lizzie caught Hope chuckling at something on her phone and noticed that Josie had taken a step to her left, closer to Penelope.

"What is so funny?" Lizzie snapped.

"I don't know," MG shrugged.

His response only seemed to make Hope, Josie, and Penelope laugh harder.

Hope stopped laughing abruptly as she looked down at her phone again.

"Raf just sent me a text, he says he found a statue outside that looks like MG's mom," she told them.

"What?" MG reacted.

"Wait, why is Raf texting you and not me?" Landon wanted to know.

When Hope looked stunned and offended but didn't say anything, Lizzie immediately jumped in to defend her.

"Did you acquire magical abilities during one of the large amounts of time when no one is paying any attention to you, knock-off Mr. Noodle?"

" _Sesame Street_? Really, Lizzie, that's the best you could do?" Penelope challenged.

"I'm kind of busy planning and participating in a pageant, so I don't exactly have a ton of free time to think of good insults," Lizzie retorted.

"We need to tell Dr. Saltzman about this. Whatever happened sounds like some serious magic," MG said.

"Or a new monster," Hope suggested forlornly.

{ }

Lizzie, Josie, Hope, Landon, MG, and Penelope made their way outside to where Rafael had told Hope that he was, stopping by the headmaster's office to pick up Dr. Saltzman on their way.

Now, they were all staring at the statue, which all eight of them agreed hadn't been there earlier that day, and bore a startling resemblance to Mrs. Greasley.

"What we need to determine is if Mrs. Greasley has been transformed into the statue, or if someone merely created a statue designed to look like her," Alaric said.

"Well, considering our luck I would guess it's the first option," Hope responded. "But who would do that? And who could?"

"If there's a spell that turns a person into a statue, I don't know it," Josie chimed in.

Alaric checked his phone.

"With all of the visitors on campus today, I've had all of the teachers and staff keeping a closer eye out for anything unusual," he told them. "Your mom is someone that most of them would recognize, and no one has seen her after she said she was stepping outside for some fresh air after she had a conversation with you."

"So, you think this is her?" MG replied.

"Unfortunately, it is the possibility that makes the most sense," Alaric confirmed.

"But who did this?" Landon asked.

"Obviously we don't know that, or we wouldn't be standing here staring at a statue, we would be talking to the person who turned MG's mom into a statue," Lizzie rolled her eyes.

"That's a fair question," Alaric spoke up, as usual, taking anyone's side except Lizzie's. "The witches here seem convinced that it wasn't a witch."

Hope took a step closer to the statue to examine it more thoroughly.

"It definitely couldn't have been a student, Lizzie's been keeping everyone busy getting ready for the pageant all day," Penelope noted. "She's barely letting anyone take a bathroom break, let alone wander the grounds casting spells that aren't taught here."

"That still leaves all of the new people on campus today as suspects," Landon pointed out. "Everyone that's here for the pageant, Roman…"

"You cannot seriously think that Roman did this," Hope snapped.

"You should know better than anyone that the guy's evil," Landon shot back.

"Roman is a vampire, there's no way he could have done this," Alaric added.

"I still think it's a monster," Hope reiterated. "This looks like monster magic, not witch magic."

"But there's no reason for another monster to be here," Alaric debated. "The knife is gone, the urn is gone, we don't have anything the monsters would want."

"Maybe they want Landon," Hope suggested.

"They can have him," Lizzie and Penelope deadpanned in unison.

"Girls," Alaric chided while Hope and Rafael glared at them and MG and Josie started laughing.

"If Hope is right and it's a monster who did this, we need to figure out what kind of monster it is and how to reverse this," Alaric announced. "I wish Dorian were here to help with the research."

"Then we'll do the best we can without him," MG said, pulling out his phone.

He searched, 'monster that turns victims to stone,' and waited for the results to load.

"The internet says it's a gorgon," MG reported to the group. "A mythical creature featured in Greek mythology, described as having the ability to turn anyone who looks it in the eye to stone and snakes for hair."

"Okay, so we don't look anyone in the eye," Rafael concluded.

"Does it say how to get the people who have been turned to stone back to normal?" Josie asked.

MG scanned the page.

"No, I don't see anything," he lamented. "I'll keep looking."

"Let me know what you find," Alaric instructed. "MG is in charge of research; Rafael, Landon, I want you two to help me search the campus to make sure that there are no other new statues; Josie, Lizzie, Hope, you three are on damage control—keep everyone inside and away from here while we try to figure out how to make Veronica human again."

"We can't, I still have so much work to do for the pageant!" Lizzie insisted. "We've already wasted enough time on this meeting of the supernatural super squad. There are flowers that need to be placed, and food that needs to be prepared, and silverware that needs to be polished. Plus, Josie and I still have to pick our dresses for the pageant," Lizzie said.

"You bought dresses for the pageant at the mall last month," Alaric replied incredulously.

"We changed our minds about wearing those, but don't worry, we aren't buying new ones," Lizzie told him.

"All right," Alaric sighed. "Go ahead and go."

"Thank you, Daddy."

"Come on," Lizzie took hold of Hope's wrist as Josie did the same thing with Penelope.

"Wait, do you really need Hope and Penelope to come with you? Because I think they should keep everyone away from the statue—and hopefully the gorgon as well," Alaric proposed.

"It's a girl thing, Daddy, you wouldn't understand," Lizzie told him.

"Fine, I will find Kaleb and have him search with me while Landon and Rafael make sure no one comes over here," Alaric relented.

Lizzie and Josie, accompanied by Hope and Penelope, walked away, leaving Alaric, MG, Landon, and Rafael looking at the statue of MG's mom.

"Do you have any idea how many years I've aged since those two were born?" Alaric asked the boys rhetorically.

{ }

When Lizzie and Josie had told their mother that they had entered the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, Caroline had given them full access to her closet, but she'd specifically referred to four dresses that she thought would be special enough and appropriate for the occasion.

Lizzie and Josie had retrieved those four dresses from their mother's closet, Lizzie carrying the two in boxes while Josie held the two in garment bags, and brought them back to their room, where Hope and Penelope were meeting them.

"Again, why am I here?" Penelope questioned.

"You're part of the group now, you might as well get used to it," Lizzie answered. "Plus, you're way more critical of me than any of the judges ever could be, so your opinion on which dress I should choose will be extremely valuable," Lizzie continued.

"She has a point," Josie chimed in.

Penelope looked at Josie and sighed.

"Proceed," she relented.

Instead of turning her attention to the dresses, Lizzie picked up a cardboard box with a thick binder sitting on top of it.

"This is our mother's research from the year she won Miss Mystic Falls," she told the other girls with an admiring smile. "What to wear, what to say—it's all in here."

Then she opened the box, which contained about a dozen thinner binders.

"And this is my research," she proclaimed proudly. "Every detail of every pageant from Mom's year until last year is carefully documented in these pages. I have meticulously crafted everything from my answers to the interview questions to the way I plan to do my hair based on this information."

"Wow," Hope said. "Before today, I had no idea there was strategy to beauty pageants."

"Well, now you know," Lizzie replied.

Lizzie reached over and unzipped one of the garment bags, nodding approvingly when she saw what was inside.

"This was the dress Mom wore when she won Miss Mystic Falls," Lizzie announced, turning the garment bag around so that the other girls could see the strapless green silk gown. "Neither of us can wear this dress."

"You don't think that it's lucky, since it's your mom's winning dress?" Hope inquired.

Lizzie sighed exasperatedly.

"Kate Middleton might be able to pull off repeating outfits, but Miss Mystic Falls contestants can't," Lizzie insisted. "The judges know exactly who our mother is and they know exactly what she wore when she won. It won't look like a tribute, it will look like we couldn't afford a new dress. Plus I look positively sickly in green. St. Patrick's Day is a nightmare for me every year."

"And there's two of us and only one dress," Josie pointed out. "It isn't fair for one of us to get to wear it when the other one doesn't."

"Exactly. Another excellent point," Lizzie agreed.

Lizzie opened the other garment bag, revealing a muted mauve chiffon dress.

Lizzie and Josie exchanged disapproving looks.

"I suppose it could be a contender, with the right accessories," Lizzie allowed.

"It's plain, it's boring, and it's an unflattering color on both of you," Penelope offered her two cents' worth.

Hope nodded in agreement, so Lizzie set the dress aside with the green one.

"It all comes down to what's in these boxes."

She lifted the lid of the first one, which contained a gorgeous blue gown embellished with clear gems set in a chandelier-like pattern across the waist.

"That's beautiful," Josie breathed in awe.

"It's all yours, I can't wear blue," Lizzie insisted.

"Why can't you wear blue? You wore a blue dress to our birthday party," Josie reminded her.

"Our birthday party is not Miss Mystic Falls," Lizzie snapped. "The research, Jo, the research! Mom's year, Elena wore a blue dress, and she didn't win. The next year, when Mom planned the pageant and passed on her crown to April Young, Elena talked her out of wearing a blue dress by telling her that she'd worn a blue dress the previous year and hadn't won, so April wore a red dress instead, and she won. You can look in every one of these binders, no one wearing a blue dress has ever won."

"That probably has more to do with the girls wearing the dresses than the dresses themselves," Penelope remarked dryly.

"I have faith in my research, thank you very much," Lizzie retorted. "You might be willing to chance it, but I'm not. As stunning as that dress is, I'm not wearing a blue dress."

Josie pulled the dress out of its box, holding it up to make sure that it would fit her, though they were all reasonably certain that it would since both girls were almost the same height and body type as their mother.

"Hang on, this was in the box with the dress," Hope crouched down to pick up the piece of paper that had fallen to the ground when Josie had taken out the dress.

"What does it say?" Josie asked.

"It's an envelope, it just says your mom's name," Hope answered, holding it up to show her where 'Caroline Forbes' was written in heavy calligraphy.

While Hope was fiddling with the envelope, Lizzie had moved on to open the second box.

"It's perfect!" Lizzie exclaimed, holding up the dress to show the others. It was a creamy beige color, covered with pearls, until the strapless mermaid silhouette flared out into full tulle skirt.

"Lizzie, that's gorgeous!" Josie praised.

Hope set down the envelope to look at the dress, giving Lizzie an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up.

"Is it an approved color?" Penelope asked sarcastically.

Lizzie frantically flipped through her binders full of research.

"Mom wore green, April wore red, Violet Fell wore, well, violet," Lizzie murmured as she searched.

"There's nothing like this in these binders," Lizzie stated after a few minutes. "Some past winners have worn light neutral colors sort of like this one, but no one has worn a dress as stunning as this one."

"It looks like a winner to me," Hope smiled.

"You can't jinx me like that!" Lizzie cried. "Take it back, and then knock on wood, and then go back to your envelope!"

"Okay, okay, I take it back," Hope acquiesced, making a fist and tapping on Josie's desk three times. "I am sure that you will look and feel beautiful while wearing that dress. Is that an acceptable compliment?"

"Yes, thank you, Hope," Lizzie accepted. "Now we'll have to review and revise our plans for hair, makeup, jewelry, and shoes now that we've chosen new dresses…"

"Um, you guys?" Hope cut in.

"What's up?" Josie asked.

Hope held up the piece of paper that had been inside the envelope.

"'Please join the Mikaelson family this evening at 7 o'clock for dancing, cocktails, and celebration,'" Hope read aloud.

"So your family threw a party and invited Mom, what's the big deal?" Lizzie asked.

"You aren't surprised that our parents knew each other?" Hope questioned.

"You are?" Lizzie countered. "Your dad sent our mom a huge check when you first came here, and Mom took us to New Orleans to visit him when we were little."

"She called him her friend," Josie chimed in.

"How did I not know any of this?" Hope asked. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

"We didn't know you didn't know," Lizzie responded.

"How long were you planning on arguing about this before you move on to arguing about what's written on the back?" Penelope interjected.

Hope quickly flipped the invitation over.

"'Save me a dance. Fondly, Klaus,'" Hope read.

"So your dad was the one who invited Mom to the party," Josie concluded. "And gave her the dress."

"And probably the one Lizzie's holding too," Penelope suggested. "They both have the same 'I must ensure my queen is always dressed in the finery she deserves' vibe."

"I'm really not sure how I feel about that," Lizzie said. "I could handle the idea of them being friends, but now you're trying to make it sound like Hope's dad was in love with my mom, and I'm not sure I can handle that."

"Are you okay with us wearing these, considering Penelope's theory?" Josie asked Hope.

Hope nodded.

"They aren't my dresses just because my dad gave them to your mom before I was even born," Hope insisted. "If what Penelope says is true, then I think my dad would have been happy to see you wear the dresses he gave your mom while you follow in her footsteps and compete for her crown."

{ }

Lizzie had thought before that she'd felt like a princess—at her recent birthday party, for example—but tonight, she felt like a queen.

Her mother's dress fit her even more perfectly than she could have hoped, she'd found a pair of never-worn-and-forgotten-about pale blush pink satin heels in the back of her closet that coordinated perfectly with her new dress, the classic and understated shade of pale pink shimmer polish on her nails didn't need to be changed, Josie and Hope had artfully arranged the top layers of her perfectly curled hair into an intricate waterfall twist secured with a circular-shaped hair pin covered with small fake pearls, and the girls had also helped with her makeup, which consisted of soft pink shades on her lips and cheeks, long black eyelashes accentuated with a very thin, subtle line of black eyeliner, and a light dusting of shimmering champagne pink eyeshadow on her eyelids.

In an uncommon role reversal, Josie had actually chosen a more dramatic look than Lizzie. She'd borrowed a pair of patent silver heels from Lizzie, her nails were still painted the silver color she'd originally used to coordinate with the blue, purple, and white flowers on the new dress she'd bought, Lizzie had tied her hair up in a sleek bun, and she was wearing red lipstick and noticeable black eyeliner.

Penelope was wearing a black jumpsuit with a cape—something only Penelope would be interested in even attempting to pull off—and had refused to help anyone else get ready or accept anyone else's help getting ready.

While the girls were getting ready for the pageant together, Lizzie had sent an urgent message in all caps to MG, telling him that under no circumstances was he to wear sneakers to this event. She didn't care how apparently expensive or prestigious they were, or what they were called, he would not ruin her chances of winning by not taking the dress code seriously.

He'd responded, "I won't, don't worry," with an emoticon smiley face.

"Are we all ready?" Josie asked, giving her makeup a final check in Lizzie's full-length mirror.

Lizzie added one final spritz of perfume over her hair before setting the pink bottle down on her vanity.

"I think I'm ready," Lizzie replied. "But someone should make sure that I didn't, like, forget to put on mascara or something."

"You're wearing mascara, Lizzie," Hope confirmed. "You're also wearing concealer, foundation, blush, powder, eyebrow pencil, eyeliner, eyeshadow, highlighter, and lipstick, so I think you're good when it comes to makeup."

Since she wasn't participating in the pageant, just attending to support her friends, Hope was dressed significantly less formally than the twins, in an eggplant sleeveless tea-length dress with her usual everyday makeup and her auburn hair in a fishtail braid resting on her left shoulder.

"Finally," Penelope complained. "I've been waiting for you for twenty minutes. Let's go!"

The four girls walked together from Lizzie and Josie's room to the small room—more like an alcove, really—above the staircase in the Great Hall.

"I'm not a contestant so I'm not allowed in here with you; you all look beautiful and I'll see you in a little while!" Hope bid them farewell at the doors.

"Where is my escort?" Lizzie demanded of the world at large when she didn't see MG standing with the two other male students wearing suits and looking like they would rather be anywhere else and wearing any other clothes.

"I'm right here," he said in a reassuring tone. She hadn't seen him because he'd been standing on the other side of the doorway with Penelope and Josie in between them.

When he walked over to her, Lizzie had to admit that she was impressed. MG looked very handsome in his classic black suit, white dress shirt, black tie, and—she breathed a sigh of relief—black dress shoes.

"Wow," MG stammered when he saw her. "You look… really beautiful."

"Thank you," Lizzie smiled and blushed. "You look quite dapper yourself."

"Oh!" MG exclaimed as if he'd just remembered something, then pulled out a small plastic container he was holding behind his back. "I wasn't sure if this was a corsage type of thing, so I got you one just in case. I thought it would be better to have it than to not have it."

"It's like a train wreck," Penelope whispered loudly. "It's so awkward I don't want to watch, but it's so awkward I can't help but watch."

Josie elbowed her in the ribs.

Lizzie took the corsage from MG. It was made up of a few small, light pink roses on a cream-colored ribbon.

"Normally, it isn't, but this is so pretty that I think we can make an exception," Lizzie answered, holding out the corsage and her right arm so that MG could help her tie the corsage around her wrist.

"Sorry, I didn't know, and I didn't want you to not have on if everyone else did," MG apologized, seeming embarrassed. "I guess I thought that if you didn't need it, you could maybe put it in your hair, or something. Or you don't have to do anything with it, it's your call."

"I love that idea!" Lizzie enthused. "Can you please help me put this in my hair, Jo?"

Lizzie turned around so that her back was to her sister and bent her knees so that she could reach, handing Josie the corsage. Josie threaded the ribbon underneath each side of the pin, pulling until the flowers lay flat against Lizzie's hair, fitting perfectly inside the open circle of pearls, which made a beautiful frame for the pink roses, then tied the ribbon in a secure knot, which Lizzie's hair was fortunately thick enough to conceal.

"That looks really pretty," Josie complimented.

"You don't think that I look like I'm gilding the lily?" Lizzie worried.

"It's a beauty pageant," Penelope drawled. "There's nothing here that isn't overdone and obnoxious. Having flowers in your hair is not going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

"Well, excuse me for wanting to make sure it wasn't too much," Lizzie shot back.

"We should go sign in," Josie suggested.

They went inside and approached a table where a volunteer sat, a list of names typed on a sheet of paper on the table in front of her and a pen in her hand.

"Last name please?" she asked.

"Saltzman," Lizzie told her with a knowing smirk.

The girl scanned down the list until she reached the S names, then paused.

"Saltzman comma Elizabeth," Lizzie clarified for the confused volunteer, who must have been new, or one of the social outcasts who spent all their time in the library, because Lizzie didn't remember seeing her around the school before.

She drew a checkmark next to Lizzie's name, then handed her a card.

"Make sure the information on your card is correct," she instructed Lizzie.

Lizzie quickly scanned the card, which just had her name and MG's name, separated by 'escorted by.' She showed it to MG, who nodded in approval, then handed it back to the volunteer.

They waited for Josie to sign in, then all four of them went to line up in preparation for their entrances.

Lizzie had insisted on all of the contestants entering in alphabetical order to keep things as fair and objective as possible, not wanting anyone to complain later that they had been at a disadvantage because they'd been announced first, or last, or fifth—whatever place they were in would suddenly become the worst position.

So Lizzie and MG took their places just in front of Josie and Penelope, since Elizabeth came before Josette, and waited.

"How much time do we have?" Lizzie asked impatiently.

"It's ten to seven," MG told her, checking his phone.

A minute or so passed.

"Can you see Hope or my dad?" Lizzie asked MG.

MG glanced over the crowded room below.

"They're both standing against the back wall. Hope is on your left with Landon and your dad is on the right, standing next to Sheriff Donovan," he answered.

"Why is Matt here?" Josie asked.

"You call the sheriff Matt?" MG questioned.

"He's been friends with both of our parents since before we were born, a former student of our dad's, and an ex-boyfriend of our mom's. Yeah, we call him by his first name," Lizzie responded.

MG chuckled.

"That wasn't funny," Lizzie insisted.

"No, your dad just asked the sheriff why he's there," MG reported.

"And?"

"He says that in his experience, the Miss Mystic Falls pageant is always a magnet for supernatural disasters," MG relayed to the girls. "Apparently, it isn't Miss Mystic Falls until there's vampire drama, or until someone's escort abandons them."

"Well, as long as it isn't mine, I have no objection to that tradition continuing," Lizzie remarked.

"Two minute warning! Everyone get in line in the correct order, we're going to start announcing the participants in two minutes!" one of the judges called out before leaving to take their place in the Great Hall downstairs.

The twins and their escorts were jostled a little as other pairs got into position.

Lizzie's first instinct was to protect her dress from being stepped on, reaching down and pulling her tulle skirt tight against her legs.

"Watch it!" she snapped at anyone who got too close.

"Take a chill pill, Saltzman," one of the competitors from Mystic Falls High snapped back.

Josie reached forward and took Lizzie's hand, trying to calm her down.

"I can't let anyone ruin Mom's dress," Lizzie explained.

"Hey, it's okay," Josie assured her. "The dress is fine, you're fine. Don't let anything those girls say go to your head, okay? They're just trying to play their stupid mind games with everyone to make them flustered so they'll mess up. But we won't let them do that to us, right? We are going to walk down those stairs with our heads held high, like Mom, and everything is going to work out exactly the way it's supposed to."

Lizzie was very grateful for her foresight to insist on wearing waterproof makeup as she hugged her sister.

"I love you, Jo," she whispered.

"I love you too, Liz," Josie replied.

They stood there embracing for a moment until they heard a judge welcome everyone to this year's Miss Mystic Falls pageant, then they broke apart with a short laugh, wiping away each other's tears and reassuring each other that their makeup was still perfect before turning around to face the Great Hall.

MG offered Lizzie his arm, which she gratefully took, smiling at him in thanks.

While they waited for the first eighteen letters of the alphabet ahead of them to take their turns, Penelope entertained them all with sarcastic commentary criticizing each contestant, which, while unkind, was also uproariously funny.

After most of the other participants had been introduced, it was finally Lizzie's turn.

"Miss Elizabeth Saltzman, escorted by Mr. Milton Greasley," one of the judges (fortunately not Dana's mom) announced.

As she made her way gracefully down the stairs, Lizzie almost felt like she was floating. The serenely happy smile that spread across her face wasn't a conscious action but a reflex. She genuinely couldn't help it. She could almost feel her mother's presence walking alongside her, guiding her with an encouraging smile. Lizzie felt calm, and focused, and fulfilled in a way that she couldn't remember feeling before. This was the role she was born to play, the path that had been set out for her the moment that her father had named his blonde daughter after her maternal grandmother: she was a Forbes, and like generations of Forbes women before her, it was her destiny and her responsibility to be crowned Miss Mystic Falls.

When Lizzie looked over at MG beside her, he was already looking at her, wearing a smile that could only be described as adoring, making her heart feel warm, like the way the sun warmed her skin when she would lay out by the pool in the heat of the summer.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, what simultaneously felt like seconds and hours later, MG leaned in and whispered in Lizzie's ear, "While we were walking in, Sheriff Donovan told your dad that you remind him so much of your mom."

Lizzie offered him a soft smile and a nearly silent "thank you" in response.

"Miss Josette Saltzman, escorted by Miss Penelope Park," the judge announced.

From her current position in the hall, Lizzie could now see Hope—who smiled and gave her a thumbs up when she noticed Lizzie looking for her—and Landon, and her father and Matt, who noticeably tensed when he saw Josie, glancing back and forth between the twins before saying something to Alaric.

"What is he saying?" Lizzie asked MG.

"The sheriff is demanding to know why you and Josie are wearing the dresses that Klaus Mikaelson gave your mom," MG told her. "Klaus Mikaelson? As in Hope's dad?"

Lizzie nodded.

"What's wrong?" Josie asked as she and Penelope took their place next to them.

MG quickly and quietly repeated what Matt had said.

They didn't have to wait long before the last contestant descended the stairs and the dance portion of the event began.

Fortunately for the foursome, they were able to speak a little more freely than the whispered conversation while they were waiting for all of the participants to be introduced.

"So now we know for certain that Hope's dad gave Mom your dress too," Josie told Lizzie as they stood next to each other across from their respective escorts.

"Yes, Penelope's assumption was correct," Lizzie confirmed, curtseying while MG bowed.

"The sheriff said it was her prom dress," MG added. "Apparently hers got stolen and she needed a last-minute replacement, so she asked Hope's dad, who had already given her Josie's dress, and he gave her yours to wear and let her keep it."

"We need to tell Hope," Josie insisted.

"As soon as we finished this dance," Lizzie agreed, raising her hand for the first steps of the dance.

It was as Lizzie and MG were dancing, perfectly performing the steps with ease and grace, that MG came to a realization.

"You aren't acting like you're afraid of me," he stated.

"No," Lizzie replied. "Should I be?"

"Almost everyone else at this school is," MG pointed out. "And after what you said to my mom earlier I know that you know about what I did to Landon, but you haven't said anything. I mean, Rafael is furious with me, Hope and Landon are staying as far away from me as possible, Penelope is making snarky comments to me and snapping at everyone talking about me, your dad and Jo did their usual 'I'm not upset with you, I'm just concerned about you' routine, but you haven't said anything."

"I hated Hope for years because I thought she was the one who told the whole school about my first episode," Lizzie said. "In my experience, the more people are talking about you, even if some of them are trying to defend you, the worse it is for you. So I didn't say anything because I was hoping that would help get the gossip to die down quicker, you know, 'if the biggest gossip at this school isn't talking about this, I guess it isn't a big enough deal to be worth talking about.' And I didn't say anything to you because I've been subjected to Dad and Josie's vaguely disappointed and judgmental sympathy way longer than you have, and I know that their offers to listen if you want to talk don't actually make you want to talk to them, they just make you feel like a burden on all of the healthy, sane people in your life who don't accidentally exsanguinate phoenixes or destroy the kitchen in an emotional rampage after being rejected. I knew that their approach doesn't work for me, so I didn't want to subject you to it in case you felt the same way."

MG was touched by how thoughtful Lizzie had been about the whole situation, as well as slightly guilty for his assumptions about her motives. Of course Lizzie hadn't ignored him because she didn't know or because she didn't care or because she was trying to keep herself from becoming a target of the attacks. There was nothing that went on at the school that Lizzie didn't know about within a few minutes of it happening, and Lizzie could never be accused of being uncaring or unfeeling—she always had thoughts and feelings and opinions, even on subjects that had nothing to do with her and didn't seem like something she would have any interest in, and she had no problem being the subject of gossip, which he should have known after witnessing her throw herself into the line of fire to save Josie from their scrutiny—and she'd more or less done the same thing for him: diverting everyone's attention to the Miss Mystic Falls pageant and away from him.

"Exsanguinate?" MG choked out.

"Yeah, it means to drain of blood," Lizzie said.

"I didn't know there was a word for that, but you're smarter than I am, so I guess I'm not surprised that you did," MG replied.

Before Lizzie could respond, the music changed and the judges left the room to deliberate while the contestants could continue dancing or mingle with each other and the pageant's attendants.

Lizzie, MG, Josie, and Penelope immediately walked over to Hope.

"Hey, you guys did great!" Hope greeted them enthusiastically.

"Thanks!" Josie replied.

"There's actually something we need to tell you," Lizzie said.

"Okay… what is it?" Hope asked.

"Matt confirmed that your dad gave our mom this dress," Lizzie gestured to the dress she was wearing. "He said that after her prom dress was stolen right before the dance, she asked your dad for a replacement, and he gave her this dress and let her keep it."

"Okay," Hope said again. "It's hard to imagine my dad caring about something like Mystic Falls High School's prom, I guess he must have really cared about your mom to help make her prom night perfect."

Josie and Penelope exchanged startled looks, glancing between Hope, MG, and Lizzie.

Hope's eyes widened as she made the connection, but before she could say anything, Alaric approached the group.

"Good, you're all together," he said. "MG, what did you find out about gorgons?"

"Three rings of a bronze bell will disrupt their powers," MG recited. "The only other way is to kill them, which we should leave as our last resort."

"Do we even know who the gorgon is?" Josie asked.

"Well, no," Alaric admitted. "We'll have to find them and interrogate them to learn where they came from and what they're doing here. There's a bronze bell in the library, once we use that the gorgon should be easier to find and capture without its powers. MG, Hope, Landon, let's go."

"Do you have to do this right now? They're going to announce the winner any minute now!" Lizzie whined.

Alaric looked at her incredulously.

"Yes, Lizzie, we do have to do this right now. The longer we wait, the more people are in danger of being turned to stone by this creature. We've wasted enough time today—it's been hours since the gorgon turned Mrs. Greasley into a statue—and we can't waste anymore. You and Josie should stay here anyway, to project the image of normalcy which will keep everyone calm while we go deal with this monster."

Landon agreeably went to stand next to Alaric, but MG and Hope hesitated.

"I've already told you everything I know, I don't know if you really need me there," MG hedged.

"It's your mother, MG," Alaric reminded exasperatedly. "And we don't know exactly how powerful the gorgon is, the more people we have working together to disarm it, the better."

"I understand that, and I do want to help, but I made a commitment to be here for Lizzie, and I don't want to break my promise to her," MG explained.

Lizzie smiled at him.

"I appreciate that MG, but as my father has made explicitly clear, what I want and what is important to me doesn't matter. I totally understand if you want to go rescue your mom and save the school. After all, it isn't Miss Mystic Falls until someone gets abandoned by their date, right?" Lizzie said.

"You heard what Matt said," Alaric realized.

The twins nodded.

"And I'm guessing that his comments about the hazards of the pageant were not what was most surprising to you," he continued.

Lizzie and Josie nodded again.

"Look, girls, your mom's relationship with Klaus Mikaelson was complicated, and I wasn't even there for a lot of it, and I couldn't think of a good way to tell my children that a thousand-year-old evil mastermind had been obsessively in love with their mother since she was not much older than you two are now, and that all of our plans to protect Elena from him involved taking advantage of his feelings for her to distract him, plus considering how the three of you have never gotten along, I knew there was no way you would react well to finding out that if Klaus had gotten his way, Hope would be your stepsister. Okay? Now I don't want to talk about this anymore, if you want to know anything else you're going to have to ask your mom. If you can think of no more reasons why I should postpone confronting a monster that is wreaking havoc on this school, Elizabeth, I would like to go protect my students now," Alaric lectured.

All three girls were still reeling from Alaric's revelation about their parents, but after a moment they recovered at least enough to respond.

"Go ahead," Lizzie murmured resignedly. "I know you have your priorities."

"I'm staying here," Hope announced abruptly. "I just… I need a minute."

"I'm staying too," MG echoed.

Alaric sighed.

"Fine," he gritted out, clearly disappointed and irritated. "Landon and I will find Kaleb and Rafael and bring them with us."

Alaric and Landon left the room, missing the return of the judges through a different door by a matter of mere minutes.

"Here we go," Lizzie stated nervously, clutching Josie and MG's hands on either side of her. Josie took Penelope's hand, and MG and Penelope each reached their free hands out to Hope, not wanting to leave her out of the group.

"Before we crown the winner, I would just like to thank all of you for coming, and all of our participants for being a part of this beloved and time-honored Mystic Falls tradition," the sole male judge spoke into the microphone. "And now the moment you've all been waiting for. It is my honor to introduce this year's Miss Mystic Falls, Miss Elizabeth Saltzman."

Lizzie was certain that she'd heard wrong. There was a staticky buzzing noise ringing in her ears. Her vision was blurring and darkening at the edges like a vignette effect on an old photograph, the only thing she was able to see clearly was the sash in the judge's hand. Her heart was racing and her eyes were watering and she wouldn't be able to bear it if this wasn't real, if it were a dream or a cruel joke, if the one thing she wanted more than anything and had had her heart set on achieving for as long as she could remember had slipped through her fingers.

But then Josie and MG were hugging her and shouting, "You did it, Lizzie!" and "Congratulations!" in her ear, and Hope was beaming, and even Penelope was smiling despite herself.

"I actually won?!" Lizzie cheered and asked at the same time.

"You deserve this," Josie told her.

"I'm sure your mom is going to be so proud of you when she finds out," MG added.

Lizzie pulled away, taking each of them by the hand as she walked up to claim her sash.

As the judge placed the sash over Lizzie's head, she saw the flash of several cell phone cameras going off—MG's, Hope's, Penelope's, even Emma's, who Lizzie hadn't known was attending the pageant—and she made a mental note to ask them to send all of their photos to her so that she could forward them to her mom.

After a few more pictures, Lizzie lifted the bottom of her sash and pulled it over Josie's head so that it stretched over both of them, then wrapped her arms around her twin, leaning her head against hers. Josie immediately returned the hug, pressing their heads together.

They were instantly met with more flashes.

"That's cute!" Hope called out.

Eventually though, photographing Lizzie got old, and Emma disappeared into the crowd, Hope went to get something to eat, and Josie and Penelope stepped outside to talk.

"Would you like to dance again?" MG suggested.

"I would love to," Lizzie agreed.

As the swayed to the slow song playing, Lizzie tried to think of the most tactful, polite way to say what she needed to say.

"I don't think that you did, because I know that you have too much integrity to, but I need to know: did you compel Dana's mom to choose me as the winner?" Lizzie asked.

MG looked stunned at the implication that he'd cheated on her behalf.

Okay, so she hadn't managed to find the most tactful, polite way to ask him about it, but she'd tried, and that had to count for something, right?

"No, I didn't," MG answered. "I also didn't ask anyone else to, if that was your next question. I know how important it was for you to win this fair and square, and I would never try to take that away from you, no matter how much I wanted you to win because I knew it would make you happy."

"I believe you," Lizzie responded. "I just don't understand how I won when she told me that Dana had told her all sorts of awful things about me. There's no way she would have picked me without some serious intervention."

"Have some faith in yourself, Lizzie," MG burst out. "There was no 'serious intervention,' there was no cheating or compulsion or bribery. There was only you. Your application, your interview, everything you did tonight, must have impressed her, and the other judges, enough for them to crown you the winner. When are you going to stop seeing yourself as this broken, misunderstood, unloved girl and start seeing yourself as the unique, beautiful, clever, loving, passionate, magnetic person you really are? That's the girl I fell in love with, and it kills me that you can't see that you're… perfect."

Lizzie's eyes went wide, and she was fairly certain that both of them had stopped breathing.

"Did you just tell me that you're in love with me?" Lizzie stammered.

"I didn't know that I was going to until I'd already said it," MG squeaked out, looking mortified. "But yes, um, I did say that I'm in love with you. But we can totally forget that I said it if that's what you want. I mean, I'm sure this isn't the first time that someone who's not even close to being in your league has told you that—"

"I don't want to forget that you said it," Lizzie interrupted MG's rambling.

Then she leaned in and kissed him.

After taking a few seconds to recover from his shock, MG eagerly responded, keeping the kiss sweet and innocent until Lizzie needed air and pulled away.

"And for the record, no one has ever said that to me before, let alone the most genuinely good person I know who isn't my twin sister," Lizzie said. "But you saying that you love me makes me feel like I can take on the world, and maybe if you say it enough I'll be able to see myself the way you see me."

"Well then, I'll say it as often as you like," MG promised, clearly delighted by the results of his unexpected confession, and Lizzie couldn't believe that she'd made him so happy when it felt to her like she hadn't even done anything.

"How about now?" Lizzie prompted with a wide smile.

"I love you," MG told her, then kissed her cheek.

"And now?"

"I love you."

{ }

Later, MG was in the kitchen getting his ration of animal blood that he allowed himself according to a strict schedule (Lizzie would be proud, he thought to himself) when Kaleb walked in and retrieved a blood bag from the refrigerator for himself.

"Hey, how did the gorgon hunting go?" MG asked.

"Your bell trick worked," Kaleb answered. "Your mom is your mom again, she left a while ago. And it turns out the gorgon is that girl you were talking to earlier."

"Nia?" MG questioned.

"Yeah, her," Kaleb nodded. "She's downstairs in a cell right now. Dr. S. asked her some questions. She says that whoever sent her here threatened her family if she didn't do what they said. They wanted Landon, who knows why, but since she's locked up, Boy Wonder is safe for now."

"That's good," MG offered.

"So how'd your thing go, did your girl win?" Kaleb asked.

"She did," MG answered, unable to help himself from smiling a little.

"You aren't going to remind me that she isn't actually your girlfriend, and that I'm disrespecting her by insinuating that she's your property?" Kaleb wondered.

"You are disrespecting her by insinuating that she's my property, but she actually is my girlfriend now," MG informed his friend.

Kaleb seemed surprised by MG's statement, though not unpleasantly so.

"Well, good for you," Kaleb responded. "I did not see that coming. What happened to make you actually make a move?"

"It was an accident," MG admitted. "I sort of just blurted out that I was in love with her while I was giving her a pep talk. Fortunately, she reacted well, you know, not looking at me like a dead bug she just stepped on."

"So have you…" Kaleb wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"What? No! Right now she's in her room consoling a weeping Josie who just found out that Penelope is leaving," MG explained. "Apparently she's the only one who didn't know, and no one thought to tell her because they didn't know that she didn't know. And even if we had, I wouldn't tell you."

"Whatever, man," Kaleb chuckled easily. "Look, you know I don't like the girl—I think she's overdramatic and overemotional and way too high maintenance—but if she makes you happy, then I'm happy for you. And who knows, maybe she'll be less uptight after you—"

"Okay, that is a thought you should keep to yourself around her," MG interrupted. "And, on a sort of related note, I hate to ask you this, but did you compel one of the judges, Dana's mom, to choose Lizzie as Miss Mystic Falls?"

"No," Kaleb stated almost incredulously. "For one thing, I couldn't care less who wins a stupid pageant, even if Lizzie winning will make her happy, which will make you happy. For another thing, if I made sure that she was going to win, I wouldn't have needed to ask you how it went when I came in here."

"You're right, I'm sorry," MG apologized. "She's just convinced that she couldn't have won otherwise and I'm trying to prove her wrong. In fact, I was trying to prove her wrong when I told her that I love her."

"Well, you can tell her that no one could have compelled Dana's mom, she's on vervain," Kaleb added casually. "The sheriff put vervain in the coffee at the gas station again, and she had a cup of it in her hand when she got out of her car this morning."

"Thank you," MG replied. That would definitely help him convince Lizzie that she'd won all on her own merits.

"No problem," Kaleb waved him off.

"Still, I appreciate it," MG repeated. "And I appreciate you giving her a chance."

"We're family, MG," Kaleb stated simply. "And everyone knows you can't choose your in-laws."

{ }

When Lizzie woke up the next morning, there was a new picture frame sitting on her bedside table.

The frame, which was painted a glossy pale pink, was one of those ones with two faces angled towards each other like a book that had been propped open, and each of the faces had been divided horizontally so that two pictures could fit, one on top of the other, on each side.

In the top left section of this frame was a picture of Lizzie and Josie's mother when she had won Miss Mystic Falls, a snapshot of Caroline with her sash hanging over her shoulders, her hands still covering her mouth in surprise but her expression obviously delighted.

In the top right was a picture of Lizzie from the night before when she'd won Miss Mystic Falls, her sash draped over her body the exact same way, her hands covering her mouth in the exact same way, her face alight with happiness in the exact same way.

Lizzie had seen the first photo before, of course, as part of her research, but she hadn't tried to copy it the previous evening, in fact, she'd forgotten all about it during the pageant. When she'd won, her mind had gone completely blank—if she'd been asked her middle name or her favorite color, she wouldn't have remembered that either.

Both photos in the bottom row of pictures were unfamiliar to Lizzie.

In the bottom left was a picture of her mother, looking down at the clipboard she was holding. Standing to her right and slightly behind her was a man Lizzie instantly recognized as Klaus Mikaelson, looking at Caroline with hearts in his puppy dog eyes, as if she was the answer to all of his prayers.

And in the bottom right was a picture of Lizzie from the day before, like her mother, looking down at the clipboard she was holding. She could estimate approximately when the picture had been taken, because she was wearing the outfit she'd changed into for dance rehearsal. But what she found particularly noteworthy about the photo was that standing to her right and slightly behind her was MG, looking at her with the same expression on his face as he looked at her that Hope's dad had worn while looking at her mom.

Had he always looked at her like that? Surely she would have noticed at some point if he looked at her with that adoring expression all the time, right?

"Hey, Jo, take a look at this," Lizzie said.

Josie had been upset since last night during the pageant, when she'd found out that Penelope was leaving the school. Though Lizzie hadn't been privy to their conversation on the subject, the amount of time that Josie had spent crying since told Lizzie that she hadn't been able to convince Penelope to stay.

Lizzie had done all she could to comfort her: holding her while she cried, offering words of sympathy and concern, sending for all of her favorite snacks, playing her favorite movie on her laptop. Eventually Josie wore herself out and fell asleep in Lizzie's bed, sleeping fitfully and soaking the pillowcase and Lizzie's pajama top with her tears.

"What am I looking at?" Josie asked groggily.

"Here," Lizzie picked up the picture frame and handed it to her. "Do you know where this came from?"

"It's from Hope," Josie answered through a yawn.

"How do you know?" Lizzie asked.

"Because I was standing right next to her when she took both of those pictures of you," Josie explained. "That's why we were laughing after rehearsal yesterday and you and MG didn't know why."

Lizzie had requested all of the pictures that her friends (and her guidance counselor, which she was pretending wasn't weird) had taken, and she'd sent about half a dozen of the best ones to her mom when she'd gotten back to her room the previous night. She'd received and instantaneous reply telling her how proud Caroline was of her, how beautiful she looked, and how Caroline had always known that she could do it, along with a promise to call in the morning, Lizzie's time, so that they could analyze every detail of the pageant.

"What about the pictures of Mom?" Lizzie questioned.

"The one of her winning is a copy of the one in your binder, don't worry, she didn't steal it, the original is back where it belongs," Josie answered. "And I don't know about the other one."

"Yeah, me neither," Lizzie replied. "I mean, I knew that the ones of me had to either yours, Hope's, MG's, or Emma's from last night, and I recognized the one of Mom's Miss Mystic pageant from my research, but I've never seen this picture before."

"I don't know, Lizzie," Josie shook her head.

"Well, I'm going to go thank Hope for this gift, and I'll ask her," Lizzie decided, taking the picture frame back.

"Okay."

As Lizzie made her way towards Hope's room, she glanced down at the picture in question again.

It must be nice to have someone who likes at you like that, like you're their whole world, Lizzie thought to herself.

Then she looked at the photo next to it and smiled, because she did.

* * *

Thank you for reading!


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